Last year, I wrote
a series of articles titled - Fighting the System! I traced the experiences of a
tenant as he went into battle with the real estate agent, the landlord, and the
tribunal (VCAT in this instance). A neighbour has written in anonymously
with concerns about the deplorable state
of the property and the unethical conduct of both the landlord and managing
agent. I applaud her sense of community in coming forward with her
concerns.
Since Dawne Hedges purchased the property
around mid-2006 and started renting it out through Danielle Hunter at the
Professionals, Wantirna South, VIC, there has been a high turnover
of tenants, due to either being evicted by the agent when repairs
have been requested or the tenants voluntarily give notice to vacate
the property due to the frustration of repairs not being carried out.
The place is run down, not fit for human habitation and on the verge of
collapsing - the property is tired and should be knocked down. It is
filled with vermin such as rats and possums, leaks, rising damp, the
stumps are giving way, electrical/fire risks etc. Dawne repeatedly uses the
excuse of wanting to develop the property when she wants to evict her
tenants if they make a request for repairs to the property. The
agent and Dawne are corrupt. In the past when they used to hold open
inspections, they would cancel scheduled inspections if it was raining
because they didn't want prospective tenants to see the numerous leaks inside
and outside of the property. To this day, you can still see the leak from
the front of the property, above the front door - this leak is still not fixed
and yet, in late September 2012 she had a new tenant occupy the property
with absolutely no repairs carried out. The block is still not developed
either which is the old and tired excuse she has used in the past
with previous tenants when they begin to exercise their rights as a
tenant. It is approximately seven years since she purchased the property,
so where are these units, when are they going to be built?
After Matt left around August 2012, it
appeared that she had trouble renting out the property for a couple of months
due to existing repairs not being carried out and the poor condition of the
property. I suspect the current rent she is collecting on the property is
around $330 - $350 per week. No sensible person inspecting the property
around August/September 2012 bothered to make an application to rent the
property due to the appalling condition. Dawne Hedges is nothing but
a greedy, insensitive landlord who does what she can avoid her legal
responsibilities as a landlord.
Danelle Hunter is also someone
who should have her real estate license revoked due to her
incompetence, deceit and abuse of power. The current tenant has
been told that his lease will only be a twelve month one because again, Dawne
Hedges wants to develop the block. She uses this excuse on all her
tenants in the event that they begin to make repair requests, she can then use
this reason (which does not appear to be based in reality) to evict
them. I have, over the years repeatedly observed the pattern of one set of tenants
vacating the premises and no repairs being carried out prior to the next
tenants occupying the property. Previous tenants have made mention that
they begun developing respiratory health complaints after occupying the
property due to the rising dampness, mould and moisture in the
floorboards, walls and ceilings. At one point, tradesmen were brought in to fix the
electricals but the power had to be shut down for one week due to the risk of
electrocution and fire!
When Danelle advertises the property on the
internet, seeking new tenants they don't mention the address or show an image
of the house, just an old picture of the kitchen. They only have
private inspections of the property with the agent and prospective
tenant, rather than group ones like they used to have Saturday
mornings between 10:00am and 1:00pm. The agent
advertises the property as low key as possible in an effort to deceive the
future tenant. The agent also plays down the condition of the house at the time
of the house inspection and claims that the repairs will be attended
too once the person moves in and has signed the lease but no, the repairs never
get done and leases don't get renewed once the tenant has made repair requests.
I do not advise ANYONE to rent 20 Orange
Grove, Bayswater, Victoria, 3153, or rent through Danielle Hunter of the
Professionals Real Estate Agent, Wantirna South, Victoria.
The system is based on the notion that it resolves disputes between individuals. But really, the law of tenancy (or the
law of the home as I like to think of it) concerns the entire community. The system facilitates
the exploitation of tenants because the malfeasance of
landlords and agents is not tracked. It is a waste of public resources for tribunals to
adjudicate the same problems again and again with no actual resolution. It’s
time this loophole was closed.
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Tenants are confused as to why the law does not protect them from exploitative treatment. They are taking to Facebook in increasing numbers. Tenant advocates have told the government repeatedly that landlords and agents are becoming increasingly opportunistic. But no action. No response.
Depending on the property, the amount of bond money may be small. But bond money is important because of what it represents. For tenants, bond money represents safety and security. Families can reapply bond moneys to secure a new rental property. In this case, a family was evacuated due to flooding and were told that they would not get their bond back unless the property was in the state it was let. The following speaks for itself.
This is our family, and this is our story.
On the 28th of January 2013 we noticed flooding had started in the backyard of our house and tried to block off all entries for the water to get into the house, on the 29th of January we woke up to water in the house we were evacuated and told by a council member due to the pressure of so much water from the floods had caused a pipe to burst over night from a house behind us, we lived behind 2 houses in a gully.
We copped all the water as it ran down our yard into the house causing 90% of my kids clothes, toys and other belongings to get water damaged and mould. We packed up what we had left and informed our real estate the situation, she insisted we stay while the house was being cleaned. I informed her that the whole house is wet and muddy we cannot stay here she had no understanding to what we had just gone through and let us know it's okay to stay. I packed up my family and said to my partner we are not staying here it's unliveable, I am not letting my kids stay in the house, he agreed and got straight onto my Dad. He was more than happy to help us move our stuff out and get what wasn't ruined into storage.
The following day I called and reminded her that we had been evacuated and wanted to know what happens from here in regards to our bond, she replied "you need to clean the property back to how it was when you first moved in" gobsmacked and in disbelief I agreed and hung up the phone, I thought about what to do and talked to friends on what to do and got referred to call the RTA, I immediately called and explained my situation the lady who I spoke to was in disgust as to what is happening and gave me a few numbers to call to get more help.
I had to wait until the 7th of March to do a phone conference through the RTA with the real estate, a day before the conference my solicitor sent her and the tribunal a copy of a affidavit. The real estate decided not to participate and now have until the 18th of March to respond if they do it goes to court and our solicitor is going to sue, if they do not respond we automatically get the bond back.
The reason for the no bond return is ridiculous, $600 for cleaning which both my partner and I spent hours upon hours cleaning what we could in the house and in the yard keeping in mind the condition of the yard/house, $512 to change a lock, the keys got lost in the flooding, $180 for pest control mind you the carpets were pulled up and new ones put in the whole house and we didn't have any animal/s at the house $160 to trim a tree out the front. Humidifiers were ran through-out the whole house to dry the carpets they ran at over 40 degrees for a week with the house closed up and the real estate still expected us to stay in the house with our 2 kids.
The real estate now also want 2 extra weeks rent because we failed to give 2 weeks’ notice of leaving, when in reality how were we supposed to give 2 weeks’ notice when we didn't know about the floods. Our lease was due to end on the 3rd of February. Now having to worry about solicitor fees upon storage fees and replacing everything my children lost in the floods which was well over thousands of dollars of toys, clothes and other belongings.
The stress is starting to get to us and we are on the verge of giving up it has been an ongoing battle since the 29th of January, it's not fair on us or my kids we have done absolutely nothing wrong...What they are doing to us is disgusting, the house is now back up for rent and I would hate for the next family to go through what we are going through right now. We’re asking for help to get our story out so please share this, all it takes is the right person to see it.
It is with a sense of glee and mischief that I return to my blog. I interviewed an interesting man with a slew of stories that would rival that of the cult movie - He Died with a Falafel in his Hands. The movie draws together colourful anecdotes about living in share houses. Now this man, let’s call him Bloke, has street smarts that indeed rivals my own book smarts. And he has used these street smarts against operators of rather dubious boarding houses.
Bloke has lived in various share houses and boarding houses in Melbourne, including Glen Waverly, East Doncaster, Box Hill, and Malvern East. It was in Glen Waverly that he won his first battle. He wanted to move out of a place he was sharing with friends. He called up about a room in a share house and was advised it was safe and reputable. Drug taking was not permitted. This was a ‘strict’ rule. On that basis, he decided to move in. When he got there, he discovered it wasn’t actually a share house, it was a boarding house (being illegally run).
And much to his surprise, the other boarders were ‘junkies’ and ‘prostitutes’ (his words, not my words). Name a drug, and they were on it – ice, speed, heroin, etc. The landlord, a Vietnamese lady, would ‘hang out’ at the house on occasion. She was a gambler. She had gambled away houses belonging to her husband who was working overseas. At times, she would even hit on Bloke and make unwanted advances. But Bloke stayed anyway, the location was convenient and he spent most of his time at his friend’s places.
It came time for him to move on. This slumlord demanded an extra month’s rent. In no uncertain terms, Bloke said he was not giving her money to which she was not entitled. She made a few threats but gave up when Bloke said he would take photos of the slum house and pass out photocopies at her place of work (along with her mobile number). Bloke 1 – Bad Landlord - 0.
Later on, Bloke moved into a boarding house in Malvern East. It was mostly Asian students that lived there. But he convinced the landlord to let him move in. So after he moved in, he discovered that his room had a gas leak. This is serious. Natural gas is highly combustible and can kill at sufficient levels.[1] Bloke was a bit worried, so he moved to another room. When he moved in there were 2-3 residents. Not long after, there were 11-12 residents. All these people had to share one kitchen and one bathroom. The whole house lost power a few times. Groceries were lost in the black outs, and of course, no one was reimbursed.
The landlord would also conduct impromptu inspections without notice. One time, there was a knock at the door. It was the landlord. But Bloke had a lady friend over. He yelled out, ‘Come back later’. But the landlord kept knocking. So Bloke answered the door and vigorously shook his hand (without any pants on).
A normal Aussie male, Bloke was very ‘active’ in the bedroom. Over time, the other residents became perturbed by the noise and made complaints. And Bloke realised he was at risk of being evicted because of his extracurricular activities. So he strategized. He crunched numbers. And he thought to himself, this landlord must be raking in about $80,000 a year. There was no contract and payments were made in cash. So Bloke worked out the landlord was doing the dodge making all this money tax-free. He didn’t confront the landlord directly but started asking questions. And he was left alone until he decided to move on. Bloke 2 – Bad Landlord – 0.
I contacted the Australian Taxation Office who advised, ‘If someone is earning income from renting out their property, it must be reported on their income tax return’. Property Advisor has identified common reporting problems, including not declaring all rental income. I have not studied taxation law, I would rather have my fingernails pulled out one by one. In any event, the Australian Taxation Office accepts confidential tip-offs about suspected tax evasion. They can be contacted on 1800 060 062 during normal business hours.
I had a bit of a giggle at this story, but it raises an important issue. People’s sensibilities might differ, but sex is a normal part of life. No one can deny that. I don’t think anyone should be forced out of their home because they do what they do. To deny this important human activity, would be an affront to human dignity.
I have learned many things in my life. One of the important persons in my life was involved in stand-offs with corrupt police in Tasmania years ago when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. The most valuable thing he taught me was, ‘Don’t take s**t from anyone’. And that is the message I will leave you with.
