Hot property market and Covid trigger horror rental stories

Covid and an overheated property market have created a battlefield between landlords and tenants, with horror stories of cockroaches, broken doors, clogged toilets and even a family who had to endure weeks without a roof.

Queensland’s tight rental market has created a suburban battlefield, pitting landlords against tenants.

Landlords have relayed horror stories of tenants leaving holes in walls, cockroach-infested rooms, unpaid rent, doors ripped off hinges, stained carpets, rotting rubbish and filthy toilets clogged with stinking nappies.

Tenants have told horror tales of 30 per cent rent increases, roofs removed and repaired while still tenanted, bathrooms that leaked, evictions without grounds and discrimination against children and pets.

Renting is the reality for more than one in three Queenslanders and with interstate migration, that number is growing fast.

Data from the state’s peak rental watchdog, Tenants Queensland, found over the past year, fewer cases of bad tenant behaviour and more complaints about landlords.

Tenants Queensland chief executive Penny Carr said low interest rates, the Covid pandemic, and a booming property market in the southeast had resulted in a tight rental market and soaring rents.

She said rents in some cases had risen as much as $100 a week, leaving many long-time renters feeling insecure and concerned about eviction.

Many suburbs traditionally regarded as rental havens, such as Woodridge, were becoming battlefields between aggressive landlords and tenants scared of eviction, she said.

State legislation, expected to be passed before November, was a step in the right direction but still did not safeguard renters’ rights by allowing evictions at the end of a lease, Ms Carr said.

“This puts unnecessary and unfair pressure on the 1.8 million Queensland renters, including 43 per cent of households that include dependent children, in a tight rental market,” she said.

“Covid has placed extra stress on renters, and calls for assistance have increased 53 per cent since the pandemic,” Ms Carr said.

Ray White Marsden real estate principal Avi Khan said only a minority of tenants behaved badly and recalled the worst case he had come across.

“The majority of the tenants and landlords are reasonable and willing to compromise given the market that we are in,” he said.

“Yes there are plenty of horror stories out there but the reality is the market conditions are dictating prices and behaviours.

“There have been a lot of changes during Covid but we are hoping for a more balanced pendulum with the upcoming reforms before parliament.”

Here are some recent horror rental stories told by both landlords and tenants.

A landlord was forced to clean up this mess from a property in Marsden.

LANDLORD: MARSDEN

Ray White Marsden was approached by a fed up landlord who had a townhouse under management with another agency. Over a year, tenants trashed the townhouse twice and the last tenant left owing thousands of dollars in rent and damages.

Ray White Marsden principal Avi Khan said the owner was interstate and had no idea of the property’s condition as the previous managing agent had not completed a routine inspection.

“The tenant had abandoned the property and it was left with holes to the walls throughout, doors had been ripped off, the carpets that were only six months old needed to be replaced and the townhouse was filled with used syringes and left with rotting rubbish and infested with cockroaches,’ Mr Khan said.

“Upon further investigations, we found the tenant was already listed on the tenancy default database, TICA, so they should not have even been put in this property.”

Ray White worked with the landlord and helped her get the property cleaned so it could be rented again. This landlord was nervous due to her previous experiences but Ray White has strict and thorough tenant screening processes and inspects properties eight weeks after a tenant moves in to identify issues early.

LANDLORD: THORNLANDS

A landlord who rented out his newly renovated three-bedroom, two bathroom brick property in Thornlands’ up-market “wine streets” estate was pushed to the brink and finally sold after the address became a marked drug den. Angry drug dealers went to the property and carved “die” in the front door before a series of police raids landed one of the tenants in jail.

“The tenants started off okay and paid their rent which was subsidised,” the former owner said.

“But the final straw was after they refused to do direct debit and then could not pay.

“They left the place in a mess and it took me nearly six months to repair it and repaint it as the walls in every room were splattered with different coloured paint.

“Windows were broken, the dishwasher wrecked, and they had put holes in every fly screen.

“We found remains of a dead rat under the kitchen sink along with a range of stolen goods.

“It was time to sell.”

A tenant left this hole in the wall in a southside property.

WOODRIDGE RENTER: EDWARD

A family of eight, including five children and a grandmother, who had been renting in Woodridge for 25 years were evicted when their lease rolled into a month-by-month contract.

When they finally found a new rental, they had to endure weeks without a roof in parts while it was repaired.

“We were forced to find a new home within two weeks, which is very difficult for us because we have five kids who go to school in the area and there are no suitable properties on the market,” Edward said.

“When we finally found a place, which was $70 more a week than what we had been paying, the landlord had to fix the roof and half of the house was covered in tarps in the middle of winter and there was no power in some rooms.

“The place was filled with dust while the work was taking place and we had no idea how long the renovations would take.

“We could not complain because we were actually lucky to get a place.”

Under the sink at a Brisbane property where landlords had failed to complete the cupboard.

BRISBANE NORTH RENTER: JANINE

Renting in the past year has been a nightmare for Brisbane woman Janine, whose surname has been withheld. After receiving an eviction notice at the end of their lease, Janine and her family applied for 12 rental properties without success. The real estate agent immediately re advertised the rental home in Brisbane’s northern suburbs with a substantial rent increase.

Janine described trying to find another home for her family as an absolute nightmare.

“We had lived in our home for nearly three years, made good friends in the community, and our neighbours are like family. Now we have had to leave, for no good reason,” she said.

“We would have happily paid the extra rent if it meant avoiding the hassle of moving, especially with a young family.

“The real estate agent never raised any concerns with us until the last inspection. Then, they complained about the state of the house as we had baby gates and other children’s items out.

“It just doesn’t seem fair that a property manager can push us out of our home when we’ve done nothing wrong. I can’t think about what might have happened to us if we hadn’t been lucky enough to find another house. It’s just too scary.”

Before they knew it, the family had a notice to leave without grounds. The real estate agent did not offer them the option to pay the increased rent to stay.

​Only by chance, did Janine make a well-timed phone call to an agent who had just received notice from another tenant wanting to break their lease.

While the family was able to keep a roof over their heads, they were forced into debt to pay for the moving costs.

Being faced with potential homelessness has had an enormous impact on her family, and Janine still cannot understand why they were given the notice to leave.

“We lived there for almost three years, always paid our rent on time, and the property manager never previously raised any issues with us,” Janine said.

Cupboards a landlord failed to repair under a kitchen sink.

LOGAN RENTER: CAROL MUIR-STOKES

Carol has lived in her Yarrabilba home for three years. Every time her lease was renewed, she asked for ceiling fans to be installed in the family and lounge room as the bedrooms already had them. Each time she was knocked back. This year, her landlord wanted to increase rent by $40 a week from $360. But Carol and her husband said they could not afford such a substantial increase on fixed income pensions. They were finally able to negotiate a $10 a week increase, but only for six months — then she fears they will be homeless.

A landlord’s poor plumbing job around the base of a toilet

LOGAN RENTER: NIK

Nik, whose name has been changed, works as a tow-truck driver and has been living in his rental home for the past five years. In 2017, his landlord gave him approval to keep his two Maltese dogs, Monkey and Willow, and the agreement was documented on the lease. Nik has owned the dogs for five years and said they had kept him going during difficult times in his life, and after recovering from eye surgery last year. However, in January, the real estate agent managing Nik’s property changed. When the new agent offered him a lease renewal, he noticed that the pet section on his lease agreement was not ticked. He questioned the agent about it, and they told him the landlord did not give him permission to keep a dog. The agent then issued Nik a breach notice. He tried offering more rent and to fix any damages the dogs might cause, but the agent declined. Nik has since requested dispute resolution from the Rental Tenancies Authority to try to resolve the issue. He said he was unsure whether he would be allowed to remain and got stressed and upset thinking about what might happen. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “My dogs have been with me for more than four years, helping me through my anxiety, my depression through Covid and after my eye surgery.” He said he did not know what he would do if he had to get rid of his dogs.”

Tiles and paint that need replacing in a rental property in Brisbane.