Anthony Albanese hands small-business owner eviction notice from three-bedroom Dulwich Hill townhouse
The tenant being evicted from the PM’s investment property says he has evidence showing he’s not avoiding talking with the agent. It comes as a Tweet has resurfaced of the PM claiming “no one should lose their home in a crisis”.
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A tenant who has been given an eviction notice to vacate the Prime Minister’s investment property says any suggestions he hasn’t co-operated with the rental agent are “comically wrong”.
Jim Flanagan, 45, has lived in Anthony Albanese’ inner west rental home for the past four years, but was last week served with an eviction notice, which he says “hit him like a steam train”.
Mr Albanese said he decided to sell the property after his personal situation changed. He said he had been “more than fair” to the tenant with below market rent during Covid and ever since, and added that Mr Flanagan had not been co-operative with the property manager.
“He’s refused to have discussions with the real estate agent, that’s a matter for him,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday morning.
But Mr Flanagan said he has a paper trial to show that is “blatantly wrong”.
“For starters, I had an inspection at the property last Wednesday, the real estate agent came to the place, so I’m hardly ducking and weaving,” Mr Flanagan said.
“I’ve also got a whole history of text messages with the agent.”
After receiving the rental termination letter from Raine and Horne Marrickville on May 8, Mr Flanagan sent back an email to the property manager.
In the email, Mr Flanagan wrote: “Thanks for the letter … We are a little surprised this is being requested by the landlord during the greatest cost of living and rental crises in Sydney in living memory and wish to definitively confirm this is the specific request of the landlord,” Mr Flanagan wrote.
When he didn’t get a response, Mr Flanagan sent a text message to the property manager saying: “Please respond to our email”.
“He still hasn’t responded, so if anything, the agent isn’t co-operating with me,” Mr Flanagan said.
Mr Albanese dropped the rent of the three-bedroom townhouse during Covid from $800 per week to $680, and hasn’t increased it ever since.
Mr Flanagan said the property manager had made a few “comments in passing” recently about how he would need to put the rent back up.
“Each time I said to him “Yep, OK, just put it in writing”, but I never heard a thing more,” Mr Flanagan said.
Earlier, Mr Flanagan pleaded with the leader of the country not to kick him out.
He's ’s lived at the three-bedroom townhouse in Dulwich Hill for the past four years, but received the termination letter on May 8, with the agent telling him the landlord “could be selling the house at some stage”.
Mr Flanagan, who is on a month-to-month lease, said he knows Mr Albanese has the right to sell the property, but contacted The Daily Telegraph after seeing the government announce a $1.9 billion package to cut rental costs for vulnerable Australians in the federal budget on Tuesday night.
“This will kill me, it’s a crippling blow right now,” Mr Flanagan told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
“I have mixed emotions in calling this out. I voted for Albo at the last election and am broadly a supporter of his policies.”
“He has every right to seek to sell his assets … but it just doesn’t sit well when, on one hand he’s trying to be sympathetic with the majority of Australians who are, like me, finding the current climate extremely challenging.”
The Prime Minister dropped Mr Flanagan’s rent to $680 during Covid, and had not raised it since. A three-bedroom townhouse currently available for rent in Dulwich Hill is going for $800 a week.
‘CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGE’: ALBANESE
On Wednesday night, Mr Albanese confirmed his intention to sell the property.
“I’ve had changes in my personal life so I’ve decided to sell the property,” Mr Albanese said.
It’s understood the prime minister is keen to simplify his financial affairs to prepare for his married life with fiance Jodie Haydon.
The Prime Minister defended his decision to hand over the eviction notice.
Speaking to ABC radio on Thursday morning, Anthony Albanese said commitments with his engagement and forthcoming marriage influenced the move.
“From time to time when people’s personal circumstances change and my personal circumstances, they change, you’ve been pretty public,” he said.
“I’m changing arrangements. The person who’s in the property will say, as in his own words I have been a more than been fair owner of that property.
He has lived there for four years. There was other people there at the time and his personal circumstances have changed. He’s a small-business owner, [and] I have had him in the property with the rent being about half what is the market rent to keep him in for longer.”
It comes as a Tweet from 2020 has resurfaced, when the then-Opposition Leader spruiked the importance of having somewhere safe to live.
“We need to freeze evictions,” he Tweeted at the time.
“We need to defer mortgages. Because no one should lose their home during this crisis.”
This is the council house where I grew up. It’s the house where my mum was born and died.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) March 26, 2020
I know how important it is to have a safe place to call home.
We need to freeze evictions. We need to defer mortgages.
Because no one should lose their home during this crisis. pic.twitter.com/HDVdItfSm5
QUESTION TIME QUIZZING
Greens MP Max Chandler Mather has taken a swipe at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to evict his tenant in Question Time.
Mr Chandler Mather asked Mr Albanese about a hypothetical landlord named “Anthony” who evicts his tenant and sells his property for a major price hike.
“My question is to the Prime Minister and concerns the government’s capital gains tax discount the land,” he said.
“If we take a landlord, let’s call him Anthony, he can increase the rent by however much he wants and evict his tenants and he can sell the property for a big profit. “When selling the property he gets to keep 50 per cent of a $500,000 profit he makes completely tax free.”
Mr Chandler Mather asked the question after The Daily Telegraph revealed Mr Albanese had issued his tenant an eviction notice.
Mr Albanese only raised the rent once and had not raised it again after reducing it during the COVID pandemic.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers responded to the question on the government’s behalf and listed out the government’s initiatives for improving the housing crisis.
‘GREAT LANDLORD’
Mr Flanagan said there was no communication from the agent or landlord about increasing the rent post-Covid, until he received a letter dated May 8 from Raine & Horne Marrickville property manager Mario Markisic.
“Please be advised that the landlord requires vacant possession of the property … 90 days after the service of this letter,” Mr Markisic said.
The tenant said he contacted Mr Markisic for clarification that it was the landlord’s desire he vacate the property, and not the agency’s.
In a text message, Mr Markisic said: “Yes, this decision is aligned with the landlord. He could be selling the home at some stage”.
The bar owner and his partner at the time moved into the property four years ago, and said “Mr Albanese has been a great landlord”.
“He’s been very generous in terms of managing the rent,” Mr Flanagan said.
Mr Flanagan explained how his business is a short walk away from the rental property, and he doesn’t drive, meaning the location is “extremely convenient”.
“I run a small business that is yet to make a profit … and the options on the market currently in this area near my business are basically non-existent,” he said.
“What is available is horrifically and terrifyingly expensive”.
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.
The property is one of two homes Mr Albanese owns in Sydney, the other being his former home, with a backyard pool, in Marrickville which he rents out for $1350 a week.
He previously owned a two-bedroom unit in Canberra, which he sold in 2022.
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