Real estate agent apologises after overnight rent increase ‘fell short of our commitment’
Prospective tenants trying to secure a property to rent have highlighted a massive issue making it harder for them to find a place to live.
Costs
Don't miss out on the headlines from Costs. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Prospective tenants trying to secure a property to rent have highlighted a massive issue making it harder for them to find a place to live.
Melbourne journalist Jacqueline Felgate shared a text message sent from Nelson Alexander real estate to interested parties informing them that one property - initially advertised for $600 a week - would now cost $650 a week due to “overwhelming response”.
In a statement shared in Instagram, Nelson Alexander said it had failed to “follow the standards we hold ourselves to”.
The agency went on to “sincerely apologise for any frustration this may have caused”.
“Whilst the current issue at hand is not a breach of legislation, it fell short of our commitment to fair and transparent practices and we have taken immediate steps to clarify the situation.
“For clarity, we do not solicit or encourage any form of rental bidding and we have taken the property off-line and are currently reviewing our processes to ensure this doesn’t ever happen again.”
But not everybody is blaming the real estate agents.
3AW host Tom Elliot told listeners on Friday morning that it is an issue of “supply and demand” and all three levels of government are responsible for creating a situation that punishes renters.
“It’s easy to blame landlords,” Elliot said, “but you’ve got local government and state government dipping their hands more deeply than ever into landlords’ pockets”.
“Landlords are not immune from this pressure, so they seek to recoup some of the cost of council rates and land tax by higher rents.
“And then, on the demand side of the equation, you’ve got north of half a million new migrants a year that the Federal Government is giving visas to to enter Australia, and that has to be putting upward pressure on rents too,” he said.
“My point is not to absolve landlords from the rental crisis. There are no doubt some greedy landlords out there, but to me it’s all about supply and demand. It just is.
“So we’re increasing the cost of rentals … by pushing up things like council rates and land tax, which pretty much all landlords have to pay, and the Federal Government is making it harder for Australian citizens to rent a property, because it is issuing visas to more than 500,000 people a year.”
It is a sentiment echoed by Pfofessor Mark Crosby, an economist from Monash University’s business school, who said limited housing supply was a major issue.
“Lack of supply is likely to continue to impact the rental market, especially as migration continues to put pressure on this market,” he said.
It comes after reports of more dodgy behaviour from landlords, including one who was accused of increasing a single mum’s rent “out of spite” because she asked him to provide a legal rental increase notice.
News.com.au last week reported that the mum-of-two recently shared a text message exchange between herself and her New South Wales landlord, which appeared to show the homeowner adding a further $50 to the rent increase and suggesting it could go even higher all because the tenant asked for the legal processes to be correctly followed.
Under NSW laws, rent can only be increased every 12 months and the landlord must give the tenant at least 60 days written notice before the increase begins.
The notice must include the proposed new amount of rent, the date in which the increased rent is payable and be signed, dated and properly addressed to the tenant.
However, the landlord instead chose to send the tenant a text and inform her the rent would be increasing to $400 that same week, claiming they had discussed the matter “a number of weeks back”.
The renter responded questioning why the landlord hadn’t sent her the legal notice of increase, given she had already asked him in person to send it through, noting he “did the wrong thing last time too”.
“It is meant to be 60 days written notice. You gave me the impression you were going to do it the proper way this time,” she said.
The tenant clarified that the person she is renting from is her best friend’s father.
She refuted his claim that he had previously informed her of the increase, saying he had only “vaguely” said rent would need to increase after Christmas due to interest rates.
She told him this was “fair” and asked him to send through the proper notice, which he agreed to do.
The woman also revealed the place she is renting is a “shipping container home he’s put on a block and I don’t think it’s entirely safe”, adding she is now looking into whether the home is a legal rental and council approved.
It appears the landlord wasn’t happy with being asked to use legal avenues to increase the rent, with the man informing the renter that the price was now $450, instead of $400 as previously stated.
“Yeah right. In that case, you are now hereby notified that in 60 days from today your rent will increase to $450 per week,” he wrote, adding an inspection would be carried out on January 19.
The woman was quick to inform the landlord that a text message does not constitute written notice and all she wanted was for him to issue the correct notice with a “fair rent increase”.
Later, she received another text message from her friend’s father informing her that he had emailed the rent increase notice and water usage bills.
At this point he revealed that, upon further reflection, a further $100 increase on top of the $450 would be considered “fair market rent”.
“As you know I have been providing you with substantially lower rent than the current market for over two years now,” the landlord wrote.
“I have spoken with a local agent and done some online comparisons and am firmly of the belief that fair market rent is now between $490 and $550pw.”
— with Ally Foster
Originally published as Real estate agent apologises after overnight rent increase ‘fell short of our commitment’
Health funds told to try again on premiums
Private health insurers have been told to “sharpen their pencils” and provide a more “reasonable” price hike which will come into effect on April 1.
Insane cost just to send your kid to school
The cost of living crisis is extending to schools, with households making a number of sacrifices to send the kids back to school.