Hello, my name's Sanatasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's On the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
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She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello and welcome to The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Currently thirty one percent of households in Australia are rented, but despite that number being so very significant, surprisingly few of us actually know what our rights are as renters. Through the show today, will be providing a bit of an overview as to where things are at in Australia in twenty twenty two from a
renter's perspective. We'll outline exactly what you can and can't do as a tenant, and we'll explain what to do if you run into trouble with your landlord. My name is Georgia King, and joining me as she always does, is Miss Victoria Divine.
Hello, Miss Georgia King V.
It is no secret that life is expensive at the moment. And while interest rates are going up, which is impacting homeowners, a lot of people living in rentals are also filling the pinch. Myself included. We're facing rent increases all of that jazz. So to kick us off, can you please provide us a little bit of context as to where things are actually at the moment in the rental space.
I thought you were going to ask about the rising cost of living, and I'm like, really, do I have to explain that? Like, I feel like we're all feeling it. We all see it. Our coffee prices are now astronomical, Like you don't even get changed for a five or any more GQ, You really don't. I don't actually use cash, so it's just when I tap it. But like it feels bad when your coffee is more than five dollars?
Does?
Like I get it? Like, please don't think that I'm slaying small businesses and think they should lower their prices. I don't just still hurts though, right, keep your prices up, make your margin, get your bank. But you're right, things when it comes to the rental space are getting a little bit more tricky for literally everyone, and rents are
certainly feeling it just as much as anyone. Rentals at the moment are nine point one percent higher gking across capital cities and unfairly ten point eight percent higher in regional areas compared to June last year. So that is
a gigantic jump from my perspective. So an example, because we love examples, we love numbers, we are stat scalcal If you were paying five hundred dollars a week in rent, that will jump to an extra fifty bucks a year, which at the end of the year is going to cost you two thousand, six hundred dollars more in total. That is literally the cost of a holiday to Fiji, but ten days in Fiji flights for me, my partner return. I was looking the other day on luxury escapes. That's
what it's going to cost. But the pace of this increase is also the steepest it's been in fourteen years. So it's undeniably a very big deal and something we really need to be talking about. So according to Domaine's March rental report, the median rent in Sydney is six hundred bucks. In Melbourne it's four hundred and fifty dollars, and in Brisbane it is five hundred dollars, followed by Adelaide at four hundred and sixty five, Perth at four
hundred and eighty dollars. Hobart. Surprisingly, I'm not surprised, but I think everybody else will be five twenty. She's getting up.
There than Melbourne.
Wait for this camera at seven hundred dollars, in Darwin at six hundred and ten. And that's not what I reckon many would expect. Definitely not, but it's often due to demand and so camera. There aren't that many houses, and there's lots of government employees with high incomes, so a lot of people who own properties. Let's make hay while the sun is shining, right.
But that's expensive. I'm surprid to see that Melbourne is only for fifty because having I've been looking at rentals for the last six months.
Yeah, I keep getting the signing my emocks to give you a guaranteur, like, hey, can you please recommend Georgia King. I'm like, yes, I keep recommending Georgia King give her a house.
Already, but literally you cannot get And to be fair, we're looking in the city and sorry, we have got a house now, but we're looking in like Fitzroy and places like she's so sad, she's a little bougie. But you cannot get anything that has like doors and you know, windows that aren't broken for less than six hundred dollars. So for fifty I reckon there's a little bit of mayo on that.
I'm a little bit further and I'm not going to tell you how much I'm paying in rent because to be honest, I'm a little bit embarrassed because it is quite high because we were quite desperado. So we are currently renovating our house, very privileged position to being very excited about it. But I think I've spoken about this
on the podcast with you. Once we did all the numbers and realized that it was actually cheaper to have the trades come in one time and you know, do all the electricity for the whole house instead of like, oh, do the front part of the house and then the back part of the house, you'd have to pay for two separate sessions, right, Yeah, So our builder worked with us to do the budgets because obviously I'm a budgeting queen,
or I like to pretend i am. It ended up being far more financially viable for us to actually move out rent during that period of time and have everything done at once. So I didn't expect that because I was kind of like, oh, let's just start with the kitchen, then maybe we'll do a bathroom. And so we've ended up biting the bullet to save more money in the long term. But it meant we needed to find a short term rental one that was really challenging to do.
And two it means I'm paying literally double what the medium rent in Melbourne is at the moment. And the house has so many issues, Like if you're following me on Instagram, you've seen that our aducted heating flooded and when our landlord came over have look and help me fix it, he was like, oh, you could just use this small reverse cycle that's in the kitchen at the other end of the house to heat the whole house. What maybe our shower flooded and has put mold onto
the carpet in the bedroom. That's obviously a massive issue. They're like, oh, no worries, We're just going to use, you know, like waterproofing paint. They just painted the base of our shower instead of fixing it. They painted the base of our shower with straight waterproofer, which if you're not a builder you probably don't understand. But imagine a shower that's tiled and someone's coming with bright blue paint
and painted the floor of the shower. So not only is it not aesthetically pleasing, I don't even know if that's legal.
That is crazy, but I guess that's what we're going to get today.
Figuring at our right, maybe that's where this is come from, right, and maybe some people at She's on the Money you have been talking about their rental experiences and have been like, do you know what we should do a whole podcast on the issue.
Definitely, And also we should say up the top hashtag not all landlords. I feel like they may be going to get a bit of a rough trot in today's episode. We see you beautiful landlords that do the right thing by their tenants, but a lot of them don't. So just acknowledging that up the top as well. This is maybe a little bit of a dumb question, but is rent going up purely because of interest rates increasing and landlords needing to meet it in the middle, I guess.
Look, I think that there's a number of reasons rent is increasing. That is definitely part of it. Homeowners are definitely paying more on their mortgages. As a homeowner, I definitely can be By the way, if I was a landlord, which one day, I would love to be a landlord, no matter how much slack I'm going to get in the community for doing a landlord, I would love to be a landlord. I think i'd be really good. I think you'd be a grandlord. I'd be like, oh, you
need a new window, I'm going to help you. You want a heat on? That seems like I can, right. But people are paying more on their mortgages, and unfortunately that does mean that they have to find ways to, you know, get more income to cover the mortgage otherwise they are out. So they need to recoup those fun somewhere,
and unfortunately tenants often have to shoulder that cost. Many landlords also g as you might know, paused rent during COVID for compassionate reasons, so people are probably making up for a little bit of lost time. I remember when I used to rent full time and our rent would probably go up at like one percent or two percent each year, and I'd be like, yeah, whatever, it's in
line with inflation and always hurt a little bit. But if during COVID your landlord didn't put it up and then now they're putting it up five percent and you've been there for three years, Like I'm not saying it's fair, it will just hit you a little bit harder. It's such a steep jump, right, Yeah, Okay.
Let's move on a little bit here and jump into chatting about renters' rights. Where are we at in twenty twenty two. If I'm not mistaken, I feel like there have been some changes in recent times.
There have been.
Yeah.
My favorite is that you are now in Victoria allowed pets. I don't know ye all around all of the states, but I know that you're now allowed pets, which is probably my favorite change. But before we dive in, I think it's really important to state that it does very state to state. So the best thing you can do is head onto your state based website and have a
look at what your rights might be and how these vary. Obviously, if you're based outside of Victoria, it's a good idea to do your own research and double check the information that we're going to provide today, not necessarily because we haven't, just because we wouldn't want you to go and take things as gospel and I find yourself in a little
bit of a pickle. That's not what we are about. So, as you mentioned before, g there have been recent changes, and over the last three years, I feel like we've gone really far ahead in comparison to where we used to be, and things have become, from my perspective, a little bit more fair for everybody. Renters now have a few more rights than they used to, which from my perspective is pretty great. It's great money weak good. Absolutely. The changes and established rights that I think would be
most relevant to our community include the following. So the first one I've written down is that you can make modifications to your home. So now without permission, you can do things like put hooks up so you can hang paintings and put screws in the wall for shelves. Where As if you have friended before you know that this was an issue. I remember in one of my first houses g I had used those you know, those command like sticky strips that don't leave any issue. I would
put those on the wall and off the paint. Well, no, I didn't have that issue that I remember. Probably did though, and just probably ignored it. I do remember filling in a hole in an old house where I had put a screw with toothpaste before I left though, so probably don't tell my old property manager, But I remember having a property manager come in and she's like, you need to take that painting down. I was like, it's being held up one It was a really cheap, very light
ikea canvas. I was like, oh, it's being held up with command strips. And she's like, I don't care to ruin the wall, take it down. And I was like, okay, now what is so now you can do that? Money means decorating win. I think that's so important because obviously, if you can make modifications like that, you can not only add like nice touches to your house, but it means you can put up like sheers or whatever you want that makes your house feel a little bit more
like your own. Yeah, and I think that's important, like you should feel like that is your home. Next, obviously my favorite, you can have pets, but you do need to seek the permission from the owner of the property before doing so, so basically the landlord needs a very good reason to refuse you. Now, so that's excellent news for our dog o loving friends. Also, there's no such thing as pet bond, by the way, that doesn't exist.
So if your landlord or your agents suggests that polanitely tell them that you absolutely will not be paying that, and that is not a thing I like it. The laws actually state that you don't necessarily have to tell them, but I would definitely tell them plate safe, do the right thing. You don't want to end up in a pickle. But instead of them being able to say in a lease you can't have a pet, they actually have to have a very very good reason to not have one,
and I can't think of one. So next on the list is we now have quote minimum standards, which means the rental needs to have a fixed heater, cough and curtains and blinds in bedrooms and living areas. Sure, I know that's not the case for Sydney though, because I was talking to one of my girlfriends who lives in Sydney recently about this whole heater conundrum that I have been going through, and she's like, oh, like you are lucky they have standards because in Sydney yollow. Really you
got mold, not their problem, right, that is naughty. You got mold. Now worries no blind for you better pay for them? No heater, Well you can go to came up by your own. Geez Louise.
That's not good, I know, right, my passion.
There's also new bond limits, so your agent or your landlord can't ask for more than one month's worth of rent as the bond, especially if your rent is nine hundred dollars or less. If you had rent that was more than nine hundred dollars a week, you must be you'd be killing it.
This one is interesting because I definitely just paid a bond that was like time and a half of what we paid per month. That's good to know that I've been there.
It's actually good point. I think that in my rental I definitely have paid more than one month's Oh spicy content. I hope our property managers do not listen to our podcast up I screen a little bit of our people, all right. So the next one obviously goes back to my mold comment, but it's basically, if you have mold, a broken air conditioner or damp issues, that's now classified as urgent repairs. I mean by the classification that our government gave us, not by the classification that my real
estate agent seems to live by. The last on my list g that I want to share today is that the notice agents or your landlord needs to give your renters before the sales inspections happen if they're planning on selling your house has increased, which I think is really important because historically I have had friends where they have been like, oh my God, Like I have to clean my apartment because my landlord just told me that they're selling the apartment and they're having inspections this week.
Yeah.
So I feel like that puts you under unnecessary pressure. But also I feel like standard rules apply. Just use your nails, and if you're not comfortable with something, even if you've looked it up on the website and it doesn't say anything about it, just tell your property manager you're uncomfortable with it, and see where you go from there. I feel like knowing your rights is also about really having a level of confidence to be like, I don't
feel comfortable with this. Is there's something else we can do or an agreement we can come to, And I think that that's really fair too.
Yeah, brilliant. Okay, what do we do v if something goes wrong at our place, like there's.
A leak or we're going to rite, we're going to write.
Also if like the stovetop stops working, like, how do you know what you're meant to.
Meant to do? Exactly?
Here we go.
So if the repair required isn't your fault, so you didn't break it, the rental provider is actually required to organize and pay for the repair. If the damage was your fault, though, it's likely that you're going to need to cover those costs, so obviously have a look at it when it comes to you know, my examples, I had nothing to do with those, thank god. They would
have been really expensive for repairs. But if you have broken it, as I've always said to just friends and family that have rented before, they're like, oh I broke x y Z, I probably should call my real estate agent. I know this probably isn't the most kosher recommendation, but they're going to go through people who are arguably far
more expensive. So maybe if your dad knows how to do things, maybe he could pop in and fix that door, Or if you've got a handy friend who could rehang the curtains that you accidentally pulled down, Definitely see if you can do that first before alerting them in saying that. Obviously,
transparency is everything. We're not saying lie. Definitely just see if there's a cheaper option, because we're all about saving money instead of getting a massive bill from our real estate agent who went with the easiest and usually most expensive option one. Okay, before we actually go and fix things, though, gee, the first thing you need to figure out is where eether or not that repair required is urgent or non urgent, as that's going to actually impact how quickly the repairs
are legally required to be made. If it is urgent, that is something that makes it literally unsafe for you to live there. So an example of this is a gas leak, a broken toilet, a serious roof leak, a flooded heater. Yeah, these repairs are actually required to be made immediately, Like you need to get in contact with your real estate agent and go hey, cool, you need to fix this asap. I mean, we can be kind. We're not like you need to be like, hey, please
help this. So yes, white flag. If you don't get a response quickly, you can actually organize the repairs yourself, and your landlord or agent is going to need to reimburse you within seven days of you giving written notice of the repairs that were required. Do not though you can't go wild with this. Twenty five hundred dollars is the maximum amount for a repair that you can actually pass on to them if you're planning to organize it
yourself in an emergency circumstance. Anything more than that and they might go Georgia King, that's ridiculous. Yeah, okay, which I think is fair.
Like there needs to be capturle and stuff, Yeah for sure, otherwise would all be getting I don't know, Smeg ovens and.
Yeah on oven broke, I need a brand new Smeg one. Yeah, exactly.
Tell me about non urgent repairs. Face.
So, when it comes to non urgent repairs, this is anything that needs fixing but doesn't necessarily make your home unsafe. So an example of this this is happening to me at the moment. Dishwasher that is not working, or a handle that's come off the door. Non urgent repairs need to be sorted within fourteen days of a written request though, so there is a time limit that's gone take you two weeks.
Yeah, but that's reasonable. But I, in my experience.
Has been broken in for three months. Yes, so that's good. I have all broken They sent someone to fix it the other day. I think they just opened the door and closed it. Charge it for it because it's not any better.
It's just so bad that, like so many landlords are clearly and not landlords, I feel like it's maybe also agents as well that just are not adhering.
To these laws.
Because let me tell you, I've had many issues that have not been sorted within fourteen days.
But do you know what the issue here is is so many times you just don't know your rights exactly. So if I said that your dishwasher was broken, you'd be like, yeah, I've emailed them about it. They haven't done anything. It's so annoying. Like Georgia, you can report them, yeah, like you can take that to VCA, you can take it further. But the thing is most people aren't willing to do that, and most real estate agents they know
you don't know that exactly. I've got more important things to do, Like I've got you know, other tenants to get in because they all work on commission, right, So like they're not going to prioritize your fixed dishwasher when they actually want to get bums on seats in other houses, right, Like they've got priorities. And I can completely understand from a business perspective why they're making those decisions. But that's just not fair. And in saying that, it's probably worth
noting here again you already made this point. It's not all property managers, it's not all real estate agents, and like people are only ever going to talk about this stuff when it comes up, and it is actually a sticky topic, Like we're not going to talk about it when our landlord is doing the right thing. Yeah, Like I'm not going to go to dinner and be like, do you know what I did today, Georgia. I had a really great chat with my landlord, really respect my
house in my living situation. Like it's just not going to happen yet. So if you are a property manager and you're like, I don't do any of this stuff, Victorotte, like we see you, we know you don't. But unfortunately, in our community there are too many people having negative experiences and in our team having negative experiences, which has led us to being like, you know what, We're going to do an entire episode on this because we want
to know our right exactly right. Well, preen up, we are prenup, Yeah.
Be on this.
I was going to ask you this a little further down the show, but I'm going to bring it up now because it does tie in perfectly. When I had my issues with our landing loyalty, yeah, and it was the property agent who I had many, many issues with. I suggested that perhaps we wouldn't pay RENTI spy.
And you had the most cooked situation.
It was horrible and he was not getting shipped done and I had to be pern about it.
No.
But I feel like maybe I will, Sam, if you're listening anyway. But the point is I felt like I didn't have any leverage to use. I felt like I had no power because he was basically like George, if you don't pay your rent or if you like threaten me in any way, that's going to come up against your record for future rentals. So you don't want to be doing that, little missy. And I was like, it's ok you have no power.
Yeah, Okay, so in this situation, you absolutely do have the power. Yeah, And he would just be intimidating you. However, it is really important to note that even though we do definitely have tenants, right, obviously you can have a little black mark put against your name and it might come up. And I'm not saying that this is a good thing. I just hear this. In the real estate industry.
I seem to hire a lot of people who have worked in real estate into She's on the money, who I think want to work in a similar space but maybe have a different impact. And so I talked to them a lot about it. And you know, real estate agents do talk. They're friends with other real estate agents. And you know, as much as I don't want this to be true, like if you had a negative experience with one company and you're moving within the same suburb,
like they do talk. They'll be like, oh, hey, do you know Georgia King, Oh yeah, she was a pain in the ass. All right, Well, maybe we just won't give her the least, and I know that that's not right and it definitely is illegal, but it doesn't mean it's not happening because if they're all texting each other and helping each other out, like it's like a friends group chat, right exactly, I'm going to talk smack about you, j king, you're going to do it, I'm going to
do it. I'm going to talk about it.
But also, you literally have to put down a rental reference, so you have to put your last property manager on any applications for me to property.
You can just say that I was your landlord and we just did it direct just like yeat them straight out. I'll be like, yep, she rented from me. She was flipping perfect.
That is what I need to hear. Okay, Well, the one more question before for the break in terms of increases to rent, which we spoke about at the start of the show. When can landlords actually do that, Like can it be in the middle of a tendency and how big can they increase be or is there really no limit?
So rent Now there's a new law. Rent can now only be increased once during a twelve month period. Before the changes over the last couple of years that has increased from once every six months. So I remember in my last rental they were increasing it every six months and I actually went back and said no, and it works.
Oh.
They were like, oh, we're going to put the rent up to this and I was like, oh no, I actually don't agree with that. And it did require a little bit of research. So on the real estate dot com dot au app and on the domain app, what you can do is go and look up leases in your area, but you can actually just do current location. And I found it so easy because I was like, all right, I just filtered it by you know, I had a two bedroom house, I had one bathroom, it
had you know, a car park. I just filtered that and then did in my area. And I was like, okay, cool, because I'm pretty sure on my last property, I was paying like five hundred dollars a week rent and that was pretty good for the area that we were in. But each time that they were putting it up, I remember it went up five hundred, then it was five twenty five, and then it was five point fifty. That became a little bit big. And I remember when I got to five fifty and I was like, okay, like, yeah,
I'll accept that. But when they were like, oh, it's going up to five seventy five, I was like, do you know what, No, absolutely not. So I went on the apps and I looked up similar properties in the area and I was like, no, you're not actually going to put this up because here are all these other properties that are five hundred dollars a week. I'm already paying five fifty. Not trying to beat you down, but
definitely can't increase it. And the real estate agent came back and said, yeah, I just passed this by the landlord. Because often your property manager is just the messenger. Yeah. They're not the person going oh, just put it up.
Yeah.
They just want their job to be easy. They don't want to have to find new tenants if they don't have to. So they were like, oh, with a messenger up. We did go back to the landlord and they've agreed they won't put it up, and I was like, great, it was worth doing that. So it's not just about knowing your rights, it's about going like, oh, what if I do push back on this decision that they're making.
It worked for me, why would not work for you? Okay, in saying that if you're on a fixed term rental agreement, the percentage amount or however the rent increased is calculated, needs to be outlined in your rental agreement. So always go back to your rental agreement. I feel like that's the thing that you just stuff in the bottom or in the bottom drawer, like you know how it goes
cutlery draw. Then you've obviously got your tool flippers. Then you've got the draw for your like glad wrap their bottom draw where all of the rogue elastic bands are, where the the batteries that you've kept the battery the batteries. Do you keep super glue in that draw tes, I keep superglue in that string from time to time. Yes, Dicky tape the duct tape that you used when you
moved three years ago. So that's where my least agreement was. Same, remember it, keep it there and bring it out when you need to, and make make sure that you know what is outlined in your agreement, because sometimes people will say things and you go, ah h, you can't do that because the agreement you gave me doesn't say that at all. So tenants I EU should be aware of the potential increase that you might be up for because it should be in your rental agreement. If not, have
a little conversation with your property manager. Nice. The other thing I would say here before I go on, because there's actually two other points I want to make is my favorite way of communicating with property managers is in writing.
One.
It's less confrontational, but to get a paper trail, and if the proverbial hits the fan, you can actually just go cool, save these emails, sender vcat and you're in a better position if it's always via the phone and you're feeling like you're in a bit of a pickle and your property manager prefers to communicate via phone because
some of them do do a little journal entry. Just write down the conversation you had, keep note of it, because I guarantee they didn't, and if push comes to shove and you need to bring it up, you can be like, well, on the ninth of the twelfth, I did this, and I had this conversation with you, and this is what was the outcome of it. You've documented it. My favorite way to document, as I've said a million times before, is to email yourself because it gets timestamped. Nice.
So instead of being like, oh, I just made this up today because I decided no, no, no, it's like, well, here is the proof that I emailed it to myself on the day of that phone call. It was fresh. That was what happened in the phone call. Anyway, I won't go on and on. So the law doesn't stipulate how much rent can go up, but the foremost common ways are in accordance with CPI, the state wide rental index, which would exist and be different for different states and territories.
Buy a fixed percentage increase or buy a fixed dollar amount. So my experience that I was talking about before they just did fixed dollar amount. They weren't talking about percentages or CPI. They were just I guess, seeing what they could get.
Yeah.
I didn't really appreciate that, and I let them know that politely, of course, because you know what we do, cheese on the money. Kill people with kind that's it. That's the way toways kill them with kindness. Also, the landlord or your property manager is actually required to give tenants sixty days notice that there's going to be a rental increase before putting it into effect. So if your landlord messages you and said, hey, I'm putting the rent up.
Don't stress too much. You actually do have two months, and that's why it's smart to go back to them and go, hey, like, maybe I can't afford this. Please know that everything in the entire world's negotiable. I mean, you can't go to Kohl's and be like, I don't really want to pay this for my Cabriy cream eggs. Yes, but what interested you think of and Jesse she is obsessed with them. But you can go back and have a bit of negotiation time. But also sixty days as
a renter. I know it feels like short notice. But also don't let people take the mickey. Maybe it is time like you did g to find a new rental.
Literally, well that's what happened with us. Sorry to bring it back to us, but when I asked for a rent decrease, they were like actually increasing the rent and you're like.
What absolutely not. One of my girlfriends, Rose, actually she was renting and this was actually international. Yeah, so this was in Canada. When she lived in Canada. She was renting on I think like the fourteenth floor of an apartment complex and on the like sixteenth floor, so the higher you get an apartment. Usually the more bougie like the rent is she saw on the sixteenth floor that it was like one hundred dollars less or something for a better apartment. So she was like, I don't want
to move. I just want a better deal on the apartment I've got, because that's a nightmare. They didn't do it. They were like no, like you can have your rent and she's like, okay, cool, I'll just move upstairs. So she just moved after you go, no moving costs because she just had her mates put it in the elevator. I'm sure that experience is pretty common because I think landlords just go, nah, she won't do it.
Then you do it, yeah, and then it feels quite good. Let's take a little break here, but on the other side, we're going to be chatting about what to do if things do turn a little bit hairy between you and your landlord slash agents. So don't go anywhere, VD. Let's jump straight back into it when it does come time to leave our rental exactly how schmik does our house
actually need to be. Just to bring it back to myself once again, I have spent maybe twelve hours probably more literally scrubbing hands, knees.
It's literally the worst, isn't It's.
So bad, And it's different doing a whole house compared to like just your bedroom when someone else moves in or whatever it may be. But I'm paranoid that they're going to ask us to have it professionally cleaned, even though we've spent so much time doing it. So how clean does it?
Actually came to me when I moved out and I was like, are you taking the meet because when we moved out of our townhouse when we purchased, yeah, I was like, yeah, Okay, no worries. I didn't have time. She's on the money. Was crazy. We paid a professional cleaner and we still got feedback. They were like, oh, this stovetop hasn't been cleaned properly, And I was like, I was a little bit salty because I was like, has this professional not done what they needed to do?
Like I paid for this. So I went over and I was like what on earth? Like this is not gonna get cleaner. I obviously cleaned it. I like was there with even domestos, like scrubbing it. My hands smelt like domestos for days. And then they were like, oh, yeah, thank you for doing that, and I was like, I still don't understand. I think it was like a power trip thing. Iron Anyway, I don't love the smell of
domestos on my hands for days. Not great. But contrary to popular belief, and despite what any agent might tell you, Georgia King, you aren't actually required to have your property professionally cleaned. Yes, you don't have to do that at all. All you have to do is return it to the condition that it was in when you took over the keys and you got that lease. And you get to also take into consideration wear and tear, because obviously, life happens.
Although most people will have been told that their carpets need to be steam cleaned before vacating, that's actually untrue, crazy, we actually have to do that. You can push back against your agent if they're asking you to do that, and you can push back against your agent even if it's in your rental contract. Really like, oh, actually, you can't enforce them because even if it's in the contract, the law actually overrides whatever is in your contract. So
remember that. And if they do need a proper clean though, like you know, get them cleaned. Like in the house that I'm currently renting, we have carpets. I would say we're pretty clean. We do have a cleaner that comes every week. Like that's so self indulgent, but it's like the best thing we've ever done, and I could not function as a human without it. So let's just be honest here. But we have a professional cleaner coming in every single week. So, like George, our carpets are in
good condition. But because I have pets, I am going to get them professionally clean when we leave without question. It's fine. However, if you're not in that circumstance and you're like, these carpets are fine, push back, my friends, steam cleaning just speno. That's three or four hundred dollars. It's so much money.
Yeah, that's naughty.
You're looking a bit salty. Did you have to pay for profession.
Done that in the past. I've been so badly burned me. What would you say? The most common issues are that renter's face bond claims.
Yep, trying to get your bond back is not pulling teeth from my experience and all of my friends experience, and the experience of cheese on the money. It seems leases, repairs are maintenance, rent increases, suck and vacate notices other main qualms that consume a VIG deal with.
In terms of bond returns, Victoria, how long do landlords or agents have to return that money to us?
So if you lodge, your bond return and landlord has absolutely no reason to make a claim because don't forget that the bond exists for a good reason, Like if you're a little bit of a pickly person and you've maybe not done the right thing, that bond exists so they can be like, oh my gosh, Jeeking had five cats and they have weed on the carpet, and we now need to replace the carpet. That's what your bond
is for. So if it's valid, then I understand why they're trying to claim in saying that you do need to be really careful with your bond. So if g let's use your five cats example, and they needed to replace the carpet, your property manager will likely approach you before you know making a bond claim and be like, gee, we actually need to replace the carpets. Do you want
to pay for that? The answer is usually if you can afford it, yes, because then you can always say on future lease agreements or future rental applications that know, you've never had bond taken away from it. Okay, applied for a property recently, and I guarantee there would have been a box to say I have always been refunded my bond in full.
Yeah.
True.
So it's important to know that. Don't just be like, oh, whatever, they can take it out of my bond, because that's actually documentary and could put you in a pickle when applying for future houses, because you know as a landlord. I'm not a landlord yet, but if I was a landlord, I would want to be in a position where I'm like, I don't want G if she's not got her bond back every time, because you don't know the semantics of
why that's the case. It could have just been like G being lazy and not wanting to do something I would literally pay for it. So important to know that. But if you lodge your bond return, a landlord has no reason to make a claim against your bond. It
will take anywhere between fourteen and twenty days. The most common approach, though, is that your landlord or your agent is going to lodge the claim and in that case the bond will be paid within one business day if using OURBTA online so hope, the online platform that your bond would have gone through. The landlord or agent can then only start the claim and get the ball rolling once all tenants have agreed on how the bond should be divided, and they have to start claims within ten
business days of the lease ending. So there are actually some things around it. If your bond's taking months to get back, which we have heard in the She's on the mining community before.
Inappropriate, inappropriate, inappropriate, incorrect.
The landlord might also land Lord's such a weird word, isn't it.
The landlord, The land lord, the lord of the land, the king of the house.
Like, sit down, sit down. You're a homeowner and you're letting me leave in your house? Well yeah, equals in this house landlord? Why not? Land lady?
Land lady. I am the land lady.
One day I'll be a land lady. Anyway, the landlord. They might make a claim for compensation if the property is damaged. Fair cool, fair cool, don't be a silly willie. And if you fail to pay any remaining rent it might be taken out of your bond. And if the house isn't reasonably clean, or you've made alterations to the house without asking, they need to be returned to how they were. So you know how we said before, Oh now it's great you can put photo frames up, and
you know, you can put shelves up. Be aware that if you don't have your landlord's permission for that, which you don't need, yep, you do have to return it to the original quality that it was at before. So you need to take down the shelf and patch up those holes. Do not take my recommendation and fill them full of toothpaste like twenty year old victory, because that's actually inappropriate and I would say illegal. Did I get away with it though?
Yeah?
But TLDR. Of all of that, your landlord or your agent isn't actually allowed to claim for reasonable wear and tear. So if it's like, oh, well this looks pretty used, or there's like you know where on the carpet from where you've walked in and out, it's like, well, I've cleaned it, it was looked after. That's actually reasonable we're in tear. And also if I'm pretty sure if the carpet's more than ten years old, they can't make any claim on it. Oh really Yeah.
My next question to you was what actually is fair?
But really, whatever is considered to be reasonable use of a property. Yeah, so faded curtains like that happens all the time because sunlight bleaches everything, a few marks on the walls, damage from environmental forces, but if anything's actually broken or damaged, then you might need to cover the cost of that. So I think that's quite fair when it comes down to it. But also some agents might be like, that's beyond where in tear, like, okay, we'll
get a second villain call consumer. But according to Consumer VIC, it's what most people think is fair, though the law doesn't actually define it, which is why I said, like, yeah, hearing it, people just ask or get a second opinion. And if there's a disagreement between you and your landlord or your agent on what is reasonable, then escalating that decision to VCAT all your state's equivalent can actually help figure that out. I see. Also, historically, I don't mean
to be a Karen. A sound like a Karen. You also sound like a Karen. We are the characters who we are as people not necessarily escalating it to VCAT without letting them know. I think sometimes sending a nicely kindly worded email being like, Hi, Georgia, thank you so much for that. Unfortunately, like this hasn't been resolved in a reasonable period of time. I'd love to work it out between us. If there's anything I can do to help you, let me know. Otherwise I might have to
just engage VCAT and see what my rights are. So weird. Things usually jump real quick after that, so feel free to use that first because it's obviously less process, but also lodge a claim, so I found out recently with VCAT cost seventy dollars.
Oh does it? I don't know why I know that, I say interesting. For your final question for today, if we are having issues with our asian or our landlord, what can we actually do.
We're going for breakfast with your friends, you can have a lot, you can have a can get on the mic and on the mic, do an entire podcast about it. But if you're not able to sort things out by chatting with your agent or your landlord, which i'd always recommend first, like please don't just go report people if they don't even know that there's an issue, Like I'm just very much about open lines of communication and if your communication hasn't been respected then we can take it further.
But you can get in touch with consumer dot VIC, dot gov dot AU who can guide you. Obviously, if you just google tenant rights and your state, it should come up who your local body is and use them. If that doesn't help, you can escalate things by going to VCAT, which is aka the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. And if you are going to it's really important to make sure that you have evidence for your case. So as I said before, we document everything. We make sure
that we have photos and videos. We make sure that you know if you're saying that your shower is leaking, you are taking lots of photos because it's easy for people to go, well, she has no proof and we fixed it. Yes, So make sure that you document everything. And as I said before, if it was a phone call, just send yourself a quick email being like, hey had a phone call with Georgia today, told Georgo about my leaky shower, and my leaky shower did this, this and this.
They said they'd get back to me by X day. Like it's not hard, but I promise you, if you want to make sure that your rights are upheld, we actually have to have documentation. They will expect it. So obviously keep hold of any of that because it might help get your disputes settled faster. Perfect ve DA.
So I feel like moral of the story, we have more rights than we think we do. We need to stand up for ourselves.
Money win, money Win.
See you on Friday by guys.
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