‘I kept my name on’: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s former tenant claims eviction twist
The ex of Anthony Albanese tenant has let slip a massive claim about the PM’s eviction drama.
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EXCLUSIVE
Comedian Chrissy Flanagan, the ex-partner of the man that Anthony Albanese is trying to evict from his investment property, has sensationally revealed that she remained on the lease even after she moved out to keep the rent down.
The ex-partner of Jim Flanagan has made the claims on a TikTok live session, where she suggests the reduced rent they received may have been partly due to her personal connections with the Prime Minister.
In the video, recorded at 11.13am March 19, 2024, she says the decision was all about helping her ex-partner hang onto the cheaper rent.
“Albo is not still my landlord. Now I live in the garage of a very nice Greek man,’’ she revealed.
“(He) lives in Greece, and yeah, but my ex still lives in Albo’s house.
“My name is still on the lease because I don’t want his, my ex’s rent to go up, so I’m just being overly generous because Albo gave us discounted rent at the start of the pandemic because we were small business people but also low-key because I’m like semi friends with him.
“Obviously, I haven’t spoken to him since he became Prime Minister because he’s been very f**king busy, but you know if I saw him on the street he would 100 per cent know me and kiss me.”
Contacted on Thursday by news.com.au she said that the decision to evict her ex-partner was a matter for him and Mr Albanese and she had no further comment to make on the kerfuffle.
Self-described serial entrepreneur and Sausage Queen Chrissy Flanagan, who previously ran a snags and beer restaurant with Mr Flanagan, previously went viral two years ago when she sang Mr Albanese’s praises as a landlord.
But when the couple broke up just months later, she kept her name on the lease even after she moved into a one-bedroom townhouse in Marrickville.
Ms Flanagan is a retired political advisor and public servant and a self-described sausage queen turned cult leader and serial entrepreneur.
She now lives in what she’s described as a “glam shed” , a one-bedroom townhouse in Marrickville.
Anthony Albanese has accused tenant Jim Flanagan, 45, of failing to engage with the real estate agent about resolving the matter after he went public with his plea for mercy.
Mr Flanagan described those claims as a joke, suggesting that the real estate agent was failing to engage with him.
The Prime Minister, who was grilled on the dispute during a breakfast radio interview, also claimed he was giving him a cut price deal that was “half” the going rate for the property.
“Does he have to leave?” ABC Radio National host Patricia Karvelas asked.
“Well, Patricia, from time to time … people’s personal circumstances change and my personal circumstances and the changes have been pretty public.” Mr Albanese replied.
Karvelas then asked if he was referring to “getting married”.
“Yes. And I’m changing arrangements,” Mr Albanese said.
“The person who’s in the property, in his own words, I have been a more than fair owner of that property.
“He’s lived there for four years. There were other people there at the time and his personal circumstances have changed.
Speaking on Melbourne radio, Mr Flanagan said he had “never refuted or disputed that, that the PM, as his landlord, didn’t have the right to do what he’s doing.”
“He is absolutely entitled to issue a termination notice 100 per cent. I have nothing against Albo personally. Or property owners,” he said.
“But I guess there’s just … when you’re a renter, there is a power disconnect between landlords and renters.
“Ideally, I guess we’re just looking for a little bit more of a considerate approach when it comes to evictions, terminations issues, notices to vacate.
“And I guess I was just a little surprised that I wasn’t afforded that.”
The tenant said that the way the eviction was handled “seems a little bit misaligned” with the messaging Labor has been putting out about the rental and cost of living crisis.
Mr Flanagan said he wasn’t asking for a special deal.
“I certainly wasn’t seeking to ambush the Prime Minister,” he said.
“I did call out before the story ran that I’d been approached by the media so I gave them absolutely every opportunity to respond.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t receive a response to those emails.”
Mr Albanese famously dropped Mr Flanagan’s rent to $680 during Covid, and had not raised it since.
It appears to be going for well below market rates, given that a three-bedroom townhouse currently available for rent in Dulwich Hill is going for $800 a week.
Mr Flanagan said the PM had been “very generous” in managing the rent.
In correspondence obtained by The Daily Telegraph, the real estate agent gave the tenant three months to vacate.
“Please be advised that the landlord requires vacant possession of the property … 90 days after the service of this letter,” it states.
In a text, the agent confirmed that the decision was “aligned with the landlord” and he may be selling the home at some point.
Mr Albanese purchased the investment rental property for $1.175 million in 2015. It’s now estimated to be worth between $1.9 and $2.2 million, according to CoreLogic.
He rents out his former home, with a backyard pool, in nearby Marrickville for $1350 a week.
‘Albo is my landlord’
In a video shared to TikTok, former tenant Chrissy Flanagan previously revealed she was surprised when she signed her lease about two-and-a-half years ago and saw her new home was owned by the Labor leader.
“So, Albo, by total coincidence, is my landlord,” said Ms Flanagan, who also ran The Sausage Factory.
“I didn’t know that until I went to sign the lease.”
However, before she signed the lease, she posed for photographs with him on a sausage collaboration and repeatedly referred to him as “Hot Albo” in online posts.
In one photo on her social media account she brandishes a pink knitted sausage while posing in front of “a shrine” to the Labor leader.
“I have plans for you, #hotalbo. Knitted sausage plans. I’m in at The Sausage Factory all night if you care to collaborate on this living @AlboMP shrine,” she wrote.
The Sausage Factory, which has now closed, was in Mr Albanese’s inner Sydney electorate of Grayndler.
In another post she retweeted then Prime Minister Scott Morrison is described as a “sausage biscuit” and an “idiot”.
The day before the 2019 election, she wrote that Mr Albanese was “a beast”.
Originally published as ‘I kept my name on’: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s former tenant claims eviction twist
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