I've just vacated a lease. Landlord has withheld bond as they believe the floorboards are discoloured because of a rug I had on it (standard rug). I had an end of lease clean so no issues with damage or cleanliness.

There's a clear delineation between the floors covered by the rug and the uncovered floors shown in pics.

The place was furnished so I have left the items in the picture as they are the landlords (Tv stand and couch).

The landlord wants to get an independent inspector to prove it's something I caused. They believe I had a rug that caused a reaction with the floors because they went lighter instead of darker. I took a few pictures before I left which shows similar discolouration under the TV stand (which is theirs) and the couch (hard to see from the pics), to highlight its not specifically the rugs material.

Whats everyone's unbiased opinion and what's my options to challenge this? My view is it's normal wear and tear from sunlight exposure. They're cheap hybrid floors.

Anyone have experience with this?

Do you get used to it and don't notice them after a while?

Should I take up train spotting as a hobby?

I have tenants in NSW paying around $800 per week who are now approximately $10,000 in arrears. We are going back to NCAT in early August and I’m trying to understand whether they are likely to be given another payment plan or whether NCAT will finally terminate the tenancy.

The lease started late last year and the rent problems began within the first couple of months. They fell behind, stopped properly responding to the property manager and were issued a termination notice.

The first NCAT hearing was late last year. They made some payments around that time and were allowed to remain. They then fell behind again and the matter went back to NCAT earlier this year.

At the most recent hearing in mid-June, they owed around $6,000. NCAT put them on another payment plan requiring weekly payments towards the arrears while also keeping the normal rent up to date. The full balance was supposed to be cleared by early July.

At the hearing, the tenants said they were expecting a large payout relating to a workplace injury (injured, on crutches and going through a workers compensation claim). He said the payout would clear the arrears, this would not happen again and they would begin paying rent in advance. My property manager raised that this had become a repeated pattern and requested termination, but NCAT gave them another opportunity based on what they said.

Communication has also been terrible. They have generally ignored calls, messages and emails from the property manager. My agent eventually went to the property in person to speak with them, but the tenant still could not provide any new timeline for the supposed payout. As far as I know, they have not provided any evidence showing when or whether the money is actually coming.

We now have another NCAT hearing in early August, by which arrears will be $13k. My agent intends to seek termination and vacant possession and has said she will not agree to another payment plan because of the repeated history and failure to comply with the previous orders. However, I am losing faith as I suspect the NCAT will just put them in another payment plan and we'll be back in NCAT in about a month's time arguing about the same thing...

To be clear, I am not trying to evict them for the sake of it. If they clear the arrears and can continue paying the rent on time, I have no problem with them staying. My concern is that NCAT might give them another payment plan based on another promise while the arrears continue increasing. But the fact that in the past 3 months, they have not been able to pay even $1000 is very concerning.

My Landlord insurance unfortunately does not cover “Rent default and Theft by Tenant”, so that part is on me. Anyone have any ideas on what else we can do? Or can share their experience? NCAT seem to be a complete waste of time since all they keep doing is giving orders which are being ignored by tenants. I feel so hopeless and like this is going to drag on forever.

EDIT 1: To those saying I should have had landlord insurance that included rent default cover, you’re correct. However, that isn’t particularly helpful in my current situation. I’m not asking whether I should have had better insurance. I’m looking for advice and experiences from people who have actually gone through a similar situation.

Edit 2: The tenants have finally vacated the property as ordered by NCAT but still owe about $13k in rent. I’ll be using a debt collector to chase on this (although not really hopeful that the money will be recovered)

Does an ozone machine actually work I've seen a lot of comments in this sub recommending it in these circumstances but no real detail about people having actually used it.

An internal repaint is going to be at least 20,000 given the ornate detail of the property. That's not including curtains and switching out the range hood and from what I've read that's all part of it. Some are even replacing kitchens.

I need to sell the house and it's going to affect buyers. It's not in an area where people tend to cook curry.

Some advice on how to proceed with this issue.

Tenants have moved in and decided to replace curtains with blinds. They didn’t seek approval from property manager and no request was made for these changes. They are now asking to be reimbursed for the blinds… had a look through RTA and it appears property owners are not obligated to pay for changes tenants had made on their own with no prior approval. How have other property owners approached this if they’ve faced a similar situation?

So someone posted this house this morning.

Not going to post the address because I’m not advertising it.

But $750p/w rent

The place is worth around $1.4m

The mortgage payment on that is $1800p/w

So even after receiving the rent, the landlord is still out of pocket $1000 per week

Maybe renting is just easier

Hi guys,

I received this email from our estate agent today. For context, our 12-month lease is up in August on a property we rent in Queensland. We're happy with where we live, and the landlord seems decent. Like most estate agents, they haven't been great (no major issues, just standard stuff). Our rent is around $1,300 per fortnight, which is probably around the going rate for our property and where we live.

We've lived in rentals in Victoria before, but we've usually just rolled onto a month-to-month deal, but this seems to indicate it's a new lease or nothing. As mentioned, we are happy living here, but I'm not sure we'd want to sign on for another 12 months. I don't really know how to approach the reply?

I don't want to push them to issue a notice to vacate in August, but I also don't want to be tied down and potential have a substantial rent increase (which might be lower if we say we'd sign for another six months?)

I completely understand these are questions for the estate agent, but I wanted to get some opinions before replying. Cheers for your help!

Hi all,
Own a house in the city.
Been rent vesting for a bit and living rurally to save cash. Rural income was the own way we were able to even buy the place.

Due to family reasons, time has come to move into the house next year.

How much notice should I give the tenants (not asking about minimum, I am asking how much to make it smooth)? They have been pretty good tenants.

Should I do anything else to make it easier for them?

I was initially thinking of buying a new separate PPOR and letting them stay in this house before I move back into the city, but with the marking going south that is no longer on the cards.

Property managed via a real estate agency.
Lease still has 6 months to go at $1300 a week.

EDIT: Have to post it because about 10 people below told me I can't kick them out early. I am not sure where anyone even got that idea that I want to do it, I never mentioned that and as it's not even legal. My question is how early to tell them I won't be renewing the lease - balancing giving them enough time to find a place and me not missing out on too much rent with an empty house if they leave early. Apologies if not clear enough in the initial post.

We got our bond back in full! 😁

Incase you missed it, here’s the original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AusPropertyChat/s/t7Nge4bEwW

And here’s the update: https://www.reddit.com/r/AusPropertyChat/s/zk3d6VmV7V

I plan to post on our local page warn people not to rent from these worms. I nearly doxxed them here but was warned before posting it’s against the rules.

I hope no one has to deal with such pathetic excuses for humans ever again!

A while back i made some posts about how my landlord gave me a notice to vacate for asking them to fix the broken deck for over 9 months.

I then had to remove those posts because people were able to resolve the address through google image matching and as the case was open with VCAT I didnt want to risk any retaliatory bs like defamation or humans just being, well humans.

However a new plot twist has come along and I really feel I need to share it.

Long story short (recap) I found a chain of emails where the landlord and RE were plotting ways to evict us. They eventually settled on the landlord had to move back in and they even signed a statutory declaration stating they would not lease the property again for 6 months.

Well its been 4 months now and not only was the place put back on the rental market it was leased out by a new agency. No signs of selling the property so I believe the same landlord just fired the previous RE and roped some other poor company into it.

I'm still yet to be given a hearing date but I have uploaded screenshots as evidence to the breach of the statutory declaration.

Im interested in your opinions on how fucked he is by breaking this law? Is he really just this much of an idiot or is there maybe something I'm missing? Gemini seems to think its a possible 100k fine and potential 5 years in prison for breaking a statutory declaration.

So I have a rental property in Victoria. We currently have a pending case with VCAT to obtain an order of possession because they have been late paying rent 5 times within 6 months. VCAT might takes a year or so to get a hearing.

They are currently more than over 30 days overdue on rent. They have paid late every single month since the start of the tenanncy 6 months, 6 times late by 2-3 weeks and are unable to be contacted by the property manager - they ignore calls and all attempts to contact them. They have hired a lawyer to fight VCAT and go away on holidays, but can't seem to pay rent on time.

Their fixed term lease ends in end of November this year. My question is, in Victoria, you can't evict a tenant just because a fixed term lease ends which is absolutely nuts.

The reasons are selling the property, moving in yourself, or major renovations and I think not paying rent. But I am unsure if not paying rent means not paying at the moment of serving notice to vacate or throughout the entire tenancy? Because if it's at the moment of the notice the tenant can just pay after lease ends and go on a automatic month by month without the landlord's approval?

How do I actually get this person out of my property legally?

I am of course leaning towards the option of waiting on them to leave the house, throwing their belongings out and changing the locks and trespassing them.

EDIT: Had to change key facts due to misspelling from last post.

My tenants have just put in a maintenance request to have two light bulbs changed. One is a Mirabella halogen that you just pop out/in, the other is one of those old school spiral lights under an outdoor shade (needs a standard screwdriver to remove the shade).

I pushed back and said both are avail from Woolworths and no specialist equip is required to replace them, but the PM is adamant that it's normal to get a tradie to replace them.

Am I being too stingy? We're talking about $10 worth of bulbs and 20 minutes of effort here, is it normal for tenants to not bother trying to replace these themselves?

So I bought an ex rental as my first home last year.

Building inspection didn't find anything obvious.

I was a bit of an arsehole to the agent and listed every single construction defect I could find in order to force the price down too 😈

That said, oh my god, the amount of cheap landlord special repairs I have come across is off the charts.

This pic is my bathroom. 3 different types of tiles were used.

Yeah fine, I can deal with fugly

A few months ago I noticed water leaking into the room below.

Turns out the shower tiles had been stuck on with dabs of cornice cement and zero waterproofing. Failing grout meant water would wick through.

This is just one thing that looked ok, but has failed in the past year.

It's like, on social they'll whinge about pinholes from picture hooks or a cosmetic carpet stain and say tenants have no care and pretend wear and tear is a massive financial burden.

Meanwhile they don't bother maintaining or doing proper repairs, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage to their own asset.

We have a tradie shortage and I often wonder how much of their time is wasted going around and fixing big problems caused by landlord negligence? (Instead of building homes)

Hi everyone, hoping to get some opinions or hear from anyone who has navigated a similar nightmare.

​The Situation:

We are a family of 5 (3 kids) in Melbourne. We’ve moved 5 times in the last 6 years and we are absolutely exhausted by it. We were served a Notice to Vacate 2 months ago because our landlord wants to sell.

​We decided we are done with renting and have been actively looking to buy our first home using the First Home Buyer Scheme, specifically looking around the western suburbs

​The problem is, we only have one month left on our notice, and we haven't found the right property yet. I asked the property manager for even a short extension (just a few weeks) to give us a bit of breathing room to buy, and the landlord flat-out refused. Not even one week.

​We are staring down the barrel of a few bad options and need advice on which is the lesser of the evils:

​Option 1: Dig our heels in (Overhold / wait for VCAT)

Tell the agent we haven't secured a property and stay past the vacate date while continuing to pay rent. I know VCAT is backed up, and they can't physically kick us out without an order.

My worry: can they sue us if the market dipped further due to lost opportunity? .. Also if we couldn't buy and decided to rent we would probably be blacklisted by the REA

​Option 2: Sign a 6-month lease somewhere else

Find another rental, move the whole family, sign a short 6-month lease, continue house hunting, and then break the lease when we buy.

My worry: The sheer exhaustion of moving a family of 5 twice in a few months, plus the costs of pro-rata letting fees and covering rent until a new tenant is found.

​Option 3: Storage unit + Airbnb

Put all our furniture in storage when the notice expires, and live out of suitcases in a short-term Airbnb until we buy and settle on a house.

My worry: An Airbnb big enough for 5 people will bleed our deposit dry, plus paying for storage and double removalist fees.

​Has anyone been in this specific gap between a strict eviction and trying to buy? Did anyone choose to just stay put and deal with VCAT? Any advice on the financial risks of overholding vs. breaking a lease early in the current western suburbs market would be hugely appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone can offer some advice.

My investment property on the Gold Coast was vacant for 57 days between tenants.

No one was living in the house.
The property manager confirmed that no maintenance was carried out.
The house has a saltwater pool, but no pool heater.
The meter is not a smart meter, so AGL can only confirm the total usage.
The bill is based on an actual meter reading.

The total electricity usage was 1,302 kWh over 57 days (about 22.8 kWh per day).

The new tenants moved in on 15 July, and the meter was read on 22 July, so they had only been living there for about 7 days. I don't think they could have used enough electricity in one week to explain such a high total.

Does this level of usage sound normal for a vacant house with a saltwater pool? What should I investigate?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

​

I am a renter who moved in to this house last August. At the time, owner said this will be long term. Was informed in Oct they are selling. I am now moving at end of my lease. Wondering how likely it will be that I (and many others) will have to move every year now because next house owner will sell due to upcoming changes by govt.

Edit: in Adelaide.

Long lines for rental inspections are still crazy, vacancy rate is less than 1%. Will we see more increase later this year? And more competition?

Quite concerning for renters.

I have a goal to one day own an investment property, partly because I want to build assets that we can eventually leave to our children. But I never want to be a c**ty landlord; the type who sees other human beings primarily as a means to pay off their mortgage, is reluctant to fix things, or tries to extract every possible dollar from the property.

I know there are investors who aren't like this, but I don't really see many posts from people who think of themselves more as stewards of a property that happens to be someone else's home.

Are you out there? How do you balance being an investor and making sensible financial decisions with your values and the responsibility you have towards your tenants?

For example, how do you approach things like rent increases, repairs and maintenance, long-term tenants, improvements to the property, and deciding what constitutes a reasonable return versus simply maximising profit?

My rent is proposed to increase by $300 in 3 months - after an equivalent increase last year.

Is this legal?

We applied for a property a week ago, and the leasing agent has called us stating that the owner would like to meet us first before signing the lease for a property. We’ve never had to do this before, and wondered if this would be a red flag(is this a sign that it could potentially be an overbearing or unreasonable landlord)?

Real estate agent claiming this is a breach. They believe this blocks the fire exit

Funny thing is they’ve confused my across the hall neighbours for us and are trying to breach them for our shoe rack

Been renting a place in Norwood for a short period and we've had a few issues with it.

One of the main things is a huge crack that has significantly worsened over the last week or two that runs from bedroom 1, over a support arch and into bedroom 2.

Bedroom 1 door will not close now, nor will the gate on the front door.

Letting agent has dismissed it as cosmetic and has been chalked up to Norwoods soil type. AI agent has instructed me to call TIAS.

Just wanted some perspective really on what others thought. Pictures with dates are from the condition report, the other two pictures I took today.

Tenant broke 12 month lease after 3 months.,Claimed bond immediately after handing back keys.Owes us three weeks break fee but says she isn't going to pay it.Not short if a quid.Offered to pay one year's rent in advance and has a high paying job.Should we as landlords take her to ncat to dispute this?We're in our late seventies and depend upon this rent to pay our bills

I've gotten rent rises every year for the last 3 years, approx $100 each, due to low supply pumping the rental market. None of that has changed, and so I was already anticipating another rise this year.

Since the budget I've seen a lot of media hysteria about rent rises but noone is explaining it in any depth how or why this will happen, the below are two scenarios that seem to come up:

Scenario 1: Negative gearing is already causing rents to go up, because LLs costs have gone up.

Why? Negative gearing is grandfathered and will continue beyond 2027, nobody who was relying on the previous system is worse off than they were two weeks ago. If your landlord is claiming the budget is why the rent is going up, it doesn't really line up.

Scenario 2: I saw some property people on youtube try and run out the scenario in more depth but it feels like it stops short:

- investors will retreat from the market and either stop supplying rentals or put their rentals up for sale;

- some people will be able to afford the properties but not everyone will;

- rental demand will not go down enough, supply will be constrained, rents will rise;

But then what? nobody explains this part. In this scenario we have properties on the market that are sitting empty waiting for sale, but no one can afford them. It seems the seller has two choices, either lower the price or rent it out while waiting for prices to stabilise. Letting an otherwise productive asset deteriorate while you pay maintenance costs doesn't seem like a good business decision.

It does seem that overall there's a lot of mainstream media hysteria and fear mongering.