As house prices soar, more and more Australians are being forced into the rental market. Johanna Leggatt’s recent article picked up on the fear and insecurity that comes with being a renter, a finding backed up by Choice’s recent Unsettled report. When we put the call out to our readers about their experiences, the stories were truly horrifying.

Black mould, leaky plumbing and bug infestations are common. Negligent landlords and real estate agents are matched only by those who are bullying, overbearing and intrusive.

Despite paying on time and maintaining the properties as their own, renters are often evicted at short notice. Signing a long-term lease seems to make very little difference, and often bonds are unfairly withheld for months on end.

There were the shocking stories: the 69-year-old disabled pensioner who was forced to live with a leaking gas heater for three years, the Brisbane man and his terminally ill wife who suffered through a Queensland summer with a broken air conditioner, and the MS sufferer with walls that dripped water all year round.

Disgraceful living conditions are all too common:

“We had persistently informed the landlord about water damage to the roof of the master bedroom in the form of a noticeable water damage mark on the ceiling that progressively grew. After a week of particularly heavy rain, the entire ceiling of the master bedroom collapsed. We had to take the landlord to the tribunal to get them to fix the ceiling and compensate us for the problems their negligence in addressing the initial problem had caused. It took months to be fixed.” – Anonymous

“It took nearly nine months to get an area of carpet fixed where it had been so worn the nails underneath were sticking out. The agents actually went so far to blame us for not having checked it in the 10 minutes we had to inspect the property with half a dozen other people.” – Zoe

The oven was an old Carmichael, we had to hold the door closed with an occy strap Bronwyn

“Worst was the aircon that leaked water over an electrical socket. Seven months of requests, complaints, breach notices etc. Turns out the reason he installed it is because the house being so old he would have to upgrade the electrical switches and install safety switches. Instead seven months later, he sent a posse of his tradie mates to come and do it dodgely. We requested a compliance cert and he told us he didn’t have to give us one, plus he didn’t have his copy anymore.

“[And] the oven was an old Carmichael, we had to hold the door closed with an occy strap. Didn’t have an oven knob or shower head for six months.” – Bronwyn, Preston

“Changing a downlight globe I saw that the insulation was sitting on the downlights and was literally smouldering. I turned all the lights off immediately and sent pictures to the agent. His response was “the landlord doesn’t think it is a problem”. So I paid for a sparky to put covers on all the downlights. $1,000. I took the landlord to the tribunal and the agent tried to argue that smouldering insulation was not a fire hazard. Then he tried to argue that I’d paid the sparky too much. I was awarded the $1,000. The landlord’s parents lived next door in an identical property built at the same time by the same builder. They got covers fitted shortly after.” – Finn, Adelaide

“Flat had a leak in the ceiling and no hot water to the hand basin for over a year. No windows that opened and no heating … in the Snowy Mountains where nighttime temps reach minus eight. When we left the wardrobes and cupboards had mould due to this dampness. Lost our bond. Threatened to go to tribunal but in a small town with one agent found it too difficult. We would have never got another place to rent. – Anonymous, Tumbarumba

“I rented a house in Taringa. When I moved in, the house seemed in good condition despite being old. After the first rain, the bedroom walls bent inward and it became evident there was black mould in the house. The situation regressed to the point where we were sleeping on the mattress in the lounge room because the bedroom was filled with mould and spores. I became so ill, developed a neurological condition from the mould, but it still took eight months to get out of the lease as the rental agent threatened to sue us if we left, and said we’d have to continue paying the 12 months’ rent even if we didn’t live there. The RTA was useless – wouldn’t help us. It took for me to pay a private mould analyst to give a report saying the house was killing us to get out of the lease.” – Anonymous, Brisbane

“I received a massive water bill – over $1,400 – much to my horror. I had informed my landlord of an apparent leakage of water under the house and he had not done anything about it. When I informed him of my massive bill, he sent someone round to fix it but I still had to pay the exorbitant charge for the wasted water despite his negligence being the source of the ongoing leakage.” – Anonymous, Geelong



There were plenty of reports of landlords who ignore dodgy plumbing:



“I rented a one bedroom apartment in Annandale for three years. Every two months (like clockwork) the sewage pipe would block and raw sewage would spill out over the driveway. There were large tree roots growing through the clay pipe but the landlords weren’t interested in actually fixing the problem, they’d just shell out for the plumber every time. It meant that I would have to move out for several nights every time it happened until my water and sanitation were restored. Such a nightmare, but what can you do?” – Rachael, Annandale

“[I was] living in a very old farmhouse with a toilet that was over 50 years old. It got blocked and the plumber had to remove it from the floor boards to replace it with a new one. Plumber could not do this safely until landlord agreed to replace rotting wooden floor boards. Landlord did not agree to do this so toilet was just left sitting over hole in rotting floor boards for us to use (it was the only toilet in the house). Over a two month period I asked verbally and in writing to have the toilet attached to the floor. I finally threatened to take it to the tribunal and was issued with a 90-day termination notice a few days later.” – Anonymous

There are the landlords who enter the premises without permission:

“The landlords came over many, many times onto the property without giving any notice, knocking very hard and yelling my name until someone came to the door if they knew we were home. The husband also was found in our backyard several times without letting us know he was there, once scaring one of our housemates who was home alone. The wife also once came over with no warning, knocked on one of my housemate’s bedroom windows when my housemate was in bed, to yell at her about having a chair on the lawn in the backyard. They would regularly come over to yell at us for things they didn’t like in the backyard.

Action simply makes the situation worse – basically if you don’t like it, leave! Dee

“We complained to our real estate agent several times and asked them to make it clear that they were acting illegally in their role as landlords. And we also blocked the one-way door they had connecting their house to ours in the backyard with a bench so that they could no longer come onto the property without warning. Soon after that we were issued us a ‘no reason’ notice to vacate.” – Anonymous, Melbourne

“The owner and family lived in two houses that our rental backed on to. We would return home to find the owner in our garden pottering around. He even pulled down the back fence to install a rain tank that would service his own property, not our rental, and would diminish our backyard space by a third. The family constantly came past and repeatedly asked about the nature of our relationship (LGBTI). When we got an electric shock from their shoddy wiring, the daughter came uninvited to our door and threatened eviction if we cost them more money.” – Caz, Ascot Vale

And then there are the problems with real estate agents:

“Having lived in share houses we stupidly paid the legitimate agent in cash (as the agent had requested). The agency was wound up during the following week before our bond was lodged with the tenancy board. For the next year we had to chase up what happened to our $2,000 via the new agent, who told us they were unable to help, the rental board, then finally consumer affairs. This took some time and all the while we were growing increasingly concerned that we wouldn’t see our money.

“They sold the apartment and we were given our notice, they allowed us to leave with only two weeks’ notice, one concession amongst so few to date. Then we had to commence the process of getting the bond back. This has taken two months, as consumer affairs had to assess our claim. They have been great but having $2,000 sitting somewhere else with some uncertainty as to whether they would approve our claim wasn’t ideal. Fortunately the claim was approved last week and the money should arrive this week, this is after moving out in early August this year!” – Anonymous, Victoria

“When I first tried to move my furniture and whitegoods [in] I couldn’t open the locks of the house, and when I called the real estate [agent] to ask them what was going on, they told me that I would have to call a locksmith and pay to get them to break into the house – on my first day! It was the beginning of a very stressful relationship with the real estate, where every fix was dramatic.” – Anonymous, Sydney

There’s no such thing as security in the current rental market:

“After 10 years in a property with barely any maintenance requests and on a month-to-month lease for the last eight years, I was evicted after requesting the first major repair in all that time and was told the owner was “selling”. We were unable to find another suitable property in the area and had to couch surf with two children for six weeks. The owner knew our situation so, after completing the requested repairs, “decided not to sell”. He offered us back the home we love at a mere $100pw extra. We had no choice and accepted. We now need repairs – the front door doesn’t close properly and have a dangerous deck but we’ll just be evicted again if we ask.” – Anonymous

“My husband and I have two children, the oldest of which is three years old and has lived in three different houses. When we moved into our previous house we were offered a 12-month lease but promised that the lease would be renewed. After the 12 months, we were served an eviction notice and we were told the owners had to sell. Couple of weeks later I saw the house advertised for rent for a much higher price. When we went for an open house for the house we are living in there were about 80 other people there and we had to offer a higher price than advertised. After 12 months we were offered to stay if we paid $80 extra per month, and 14 months after we moved in we are still waiting for things to get fixed. We will probably have to put up with it for the rest of our lives because there is no way we will ever be able to afford to buy.” – Anonymous

“Our lease is coming up to its end again. So we sit, nervously, wondering if the merry-go-round of going to inspections and stress will start again. Should we ask the agent for a renewal? Or will asking prompt them to serve an eviction notice? Is it better to be on a non-fixed term (when you have three months’ notice period), or a 12-month contract (where for nine months you have more security, but then a period at the end with less (30 days) security? Spending all this time second-guessing our landlord is exhausting. And we’ve stopped bothering spending much time getting to know the neighbours, as we end up moving all the time.” – Dan, Sydney



Renters in Hobart are in a particularly tight spot, as they are increasingly locked out of the market as tourists and out of towners move in.

“If you jump online you will see maybe five or six properties coming up for rent each day, with several hundred people looking for homes. The social media pages that used to be full of agencies promoting properties are now full of posts generally starting with “URGENT: NEED ANYWHERE TO LIVE”.

“If you jump on AirBnB though, you’ll find literally hundreds of full-homes to rent. These tend to be around the areas where jobs, the university and services are, whereas most homes coming up for lease are appearing further and further out in the suburbs where there are no jobs, far from the university and with very little (if any) public transport.

“I see no hope for someone like me, and feel utterly and completely abandoned by all the major players, even the Greens, and that the newfound popularity of my home town means that I am simply not rich enough to be part of the community anymore. I’m in tears writing this, partly through rage, knowing that we had something special and accessible and now it’s literally only for people who are (by the standard of our wages) rich. The poor no longer have a place here and I can’t believe that it has come to this.” – Anonymous, Hobart

Many responders said they decided not to take any further action because they didn’t want to rock the boat or receive a bad reference. More than one said they had been forced to couch surf or live in their car between rentals, with homelessness a looming possibility.

As Dee in Adelaide put it “Action simply makes the situation worse – basically if you don’t like it, leave!”

Landlords also stepped in with their bad tenants tales. A Melbourne landlord said: “One who moved into the … unit, with prior permission for one small pet and requirement to request permission to add additional hooks for hanging artwork. His three large dogs destroyed the carpets; medallions, photos, prints, and newspaper articles “papered” the walls requiring extensive patching and painting, and complete recarpeting prior to being able to let again.”

Another said difficult tenants who threaten tribunal action for “bogus claims” was one of the reasons landlords became more conservative and relied on agents to weed out potentially problematic tenants.

“And don’t get me started on forcing landlords to accept pets when the property is not suitable … the last dog bond claim required a $200 repair to paintwork. We won’t be so accommodating next time.” – Anonymous

When asked why they rented, some replied that they had to move to expensive areas for employment or their children’s education, but mostly the response was simply “can’t afford to buy”.

For many, it’s a no-win situation. As Rebecca in Sydney said: “Renting leaves you always struggling. You feel like you can’t ask for things to be put right or you’ll be out on your ear after the lease expires.”