Young Einstein star Yahoo Serious evicted from Sydney home after failing to pay $27,000 in rent
Australian actor Yahoo Serious, who starred in the ‘80s hit Young Einstein, has been evicted from his home after falling behind on his rent.
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Australian actor Yahoo Serious, who starred in the hit ‘80s comedy film Young Einstein, has been evicted from his Sydney home after falling more than $27,000 behind in rental payments.
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal has ordered the 66-year-old to vacate the three-bedroom Avalon Beach home and pay the landlords, Tanya and Andrew Barlow, $15,000.
The owners took Mr Serious to the tribunal after he failed to pay his $1350-per-week rent for five months, claiming his income had been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The actor, who briefly catapulted to worldwide stardom in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, began renting the property in March 2017 and first fell into arrears in November 2019. He has not paid any rent since February 25.
Mr Serious told the tribunal he had previously earned income through his artistic and creative endeavours but that the crisis had impacted a project he was working on.
Asked what rental assistance he had sought, Mr Serious told the tribunal he had visited Centrelink, where he was advised to apply for the age pension as he was about to turn 67.
“With the pandemic reshaping the movie industry towards home entertainment, the project on which the first tenant was working has been impacted,” the tribunal said in its decision.
“Although he notes the Federal Government has recently announced a $250 million assistance package for the entertainment industry and hopes to be thereby able to obtain financial assistance, there are no firm details he was able to provide at the hearing.”
Mr Serious attempted to apply for an eviction moratorium under new rental tenancy laws enacted in response to the pandemic. Under the new laws, the tenant must show their weekly earnings have fallen by more than 25 per cent.
The tribunal said bank statements provided by Mr Serious for March and April, however, showed “no evidence” of pre-pandemic income, meaning he did not satisfy the test.
“Well may the tenants say that by March their income was already affected but the simple fact is that the Tribunal has no evidence of pre-pandemic income for the tenants which would enable this second test to be satisfied,” the decision said.
Mr Serious, whose last film was 2000’s Mr Accident, asked to be given until the end of September to resume rental payments and promised to clear the arrears by December 31 – which by that date would have reached $58,564,80.
The owners outlined to the tribunal how Mr Serious’ failure to pay rent had affected them financially, as Mr Barlow had also lost work and they were reliant on the rental income.
As a result of the hardship they had sold all of their major shares, applied for an early release of superannuation, exchanged to a cheaper car, cut all spending, negotiated an extension of payment for their children’s school fees and used their savings to service personal loans that were previously covered by the rent.
They noted that if they were forced to sell the property they would become liable for $250,000 in capital gains tax.
“The difficulty of this case is that the COVID-19 pandemic has created severe difficulties for both the landlords and the tenants and the decision as to whether or not the tenancy should be terminated will cause additional hardship for whichever party is unsuccessful,” the tribunal said.
The actor has been ordered to vacate the house by August 13 and pay an occupation fee of $192.86 until then.
Originally published as Young Einstein star Yahoo Serious evicted from Sydney home after failing to pay $27,000 in rent