‘Unethical and gutless’ tactic used to evict tenants and up rent in housing crisis

Aussie renters are lashing a “gutless” and widespread tactic used by landlords and agents to force out tenants and score even more rent.

Aussie renters are exposing a dodgy – and alarmingly widespread – tactic used by landlords and real estate agents to force out tenants and score even more rent in the middle of the nation’s housing crisis.

A resident of Zetland in inner Sydney recently ignited a fierce debate after taking to a local Facebook group to claim real estate agents were “bullying tenants in the area and using whatever law they can to kick people out”.

The social media user shared a notice they had received from their agent to vacate the property – for one disturbing reason.

“I was given 90 days’ notice to move [as] the owners are supposedly moving back in – also overseas owners,” the tenant posted.

“I wasn’t given any rent increase, just a ‘you have to move’. In the search for moving to a new property I also met about 10 others who where given the same 90 days’ notice, also this same postcode.

“It felt unlikely that all of a sudden all of these overseas owners are now moving back in.

“And now I’ve just seen my old place I’ve just moved out of now on the app to rent – but $300 more.”

The renter confirmed they had made an official complaint to NSW Fair Trading and the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, and urged other victims to follow suit, claiming that “we should be standing up to this”.

“If we don’t report it, the agents will continue to do so,” the post continued.

“Of course it’s likely there’s a really small percentage of owners who intend to move back in that then don’t, but that’s a really small chance, it just feels like they are doing whatever dodgy practices they can to increase the rent.”

The practice appears to be widespread.

The Zetland area has become a microcosm of the whole city – and indeed the entire country – which is now in the midst of a devastating rental crisis caused by demand well and truly outstripping supply, leading to a mass exodus in certain areas.

In fact, the national vacancy rate standing at 1.1 per cent in March, a nudge of 0.1 per cent from the month before.

Vacancy rates across greater Sydney and Melbourne remained at 1.3 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.

Unsurprisingly, the post was flooded with comments, with other nearby residents confirming they too had fallen victim to the common real estate tactic, while others slammed the flimsy excuse.

News.com.au readers also got in touch with similar depressing stories.

Sydney renter Joe Alder has lived in 10 properties since moving from the UK five years ago, and he has been pushed out of almost half of them for the same reason – because the landlord falsely claimed someone was moving back in.

Mr Adler discovered on the very day he moved out that his Coogee property had immediately been relisted for an extra $150.

The most recent example happened several weeks ago, with Mr Adler discovering on the very day he moved out that his Coogee property, which he had been paying around $700 per week for, had immediately been relisted for an extra $150.

“I was proper struggling to find anywhere, it was super stressful. I ended up having to pay more (for a new property) and wasted four weekends looking at apartments,” he said.

“I realised after they probably didn’t offer the rent increase to me because they had already increased the rent four months ago … so they fully lied about it and they even wrote a letter and said that was the reason I was being evicted.

“I was very p**sed off. There’s so much cost and stress involved (in moving) but it’s completely legal and happens literally all the time.”

Mr Alder – who forked out $400 for a cleaning fee and $1000 for removalists – said renters had it easier in London where he lived previously and said something needed to be done to protect tenants in Australia.

Australia is in the grip of a brutal rental crisis. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

It was a sentiment echoed by Sophie* and her partner, who were taken by surprise in February when the lease on their Randwick apartment wasn’t renewed as it had been previously.

She was later informed by the property manager that the owner was planning on selling the property to a family friend – but soon spotted it being advertised online for $925 per week, before eventually being leased for $850 – a substantial increase from the $$670 they had been paying.

She said the experience was “soul destroying”.

“It’s disgusting, sh**ty behaviour and I don’t understand why they would concoct a story like that unless it was to try and get around some loophole,” she said.

“What was the point of being put through that unnecessary stress?

“Something really needs to be done because there’s definitely a crisis, I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and I don’t know how much is being done to try and alleviate it.”

Property law expert and solicitor Monica Rouvellas told news.com.au the legality of the practice was “very state dependent”.

“In NSW, section 85 of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) allows landlords to evict tenants for no reason, and often agents will say to tenants that the landlord wants to move back in. Regardless, in NSW tenants cannot do much about that,” Ms Rouvellas explained.

“In Victoria, where the RTA is more tenant-friendly, section 91ZW allows for a landlord to evict a tenant on a fixed lease if it is the landlord’s principal place of residence and only if the rental provider (this includes landlord) has not entered into more than two residential rental agreements in respect of the property since it became the rental provider’s principal place of residence.

“There hasn’t been any notable cases where a tenant has succeeded in establishing that an eviction was unfair or illegal on those grounds and this is probably because to do so would require time the Tribunals don’t have to go through the matter, not to mention the cost to the tenant to meet the evidentiary burden.

Demand for rental properties is well and truly outstripping supply. Picture: Chris Pavlich for The Australian

“While it is possible to challenge this outside the Tribunal through the court system, the issue most tenants would have is establishing whether the detrimental effects of moving house is worth the court’s time to seek compensation.

“Not to mention the other societal issue we will have should courts start giving specific performance orders to landlords to keep tenants in properties – we’d have a bigger housing crisis. The only way to change this would be to create better housing laws where landlords need to treat their investments as a business.”

Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive officer Leo Patterson Ross told news.com.au the practice of landlords evicting tenants claiming they needed to occupy the property only to relist it for higher rent had “become an increasingly common occurrence”.

“This is particularly strange behaviour while no grounds evictions remain on the books, as there is no need to mislead – it may indicate that some recognise that evicting only to hike the rent is not a socially acceptable thing to do,” he said.

“We hear from renters who feel frustrated when they see what was their home listed on a real estate website and have no recourse.

“With reform to no grounds evictions on the way in NSW, the reform needs to include mechanisms to de-incentivise this behaviour. In Victoria, landlords can face penalties of more than $20,000 if they or their family do not move into the property within six months after evicting a renter for the purpose of occupation.”

He added that if landlords are allowed to continue this “dishonest practice” unchecked, this issue will “continue to displace renters from their homes for no good reason and leverage people’s desperation to keep a roof over their heads into increasing rents”.

A NSW Fair Trading spokesman told news.com.au that currently in NSW, a property owner can end a tenancy for any reason, and that the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 allows a property owner to end a periodic tenancy agreement at any time with at least 90 days’ notice, and a fixed term agreement after the agreed term has passed with at least 30 days’ notice.

“The Act does not restrict an owner from re-letting a property after a tenancy has ended,” the spokesman said.

“Renters can challenge a termination that is retaliatory by applying to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. A retaliatory termination is one where the renter had proposed or tried to enforce a right (including by applying to the Tribunal), which wholly or partly motived the owner to end their tenancy agreement.

“The NSW Government has committed to changing the way an owner can end a tenancy agreement and create a new NSW Rental Commissioner to give renters a stronger voice. “Owners will no longer be able to end an agreement without a reason. This will give renters more certainty about when and why they can be asked to leave a rental property.”

*Name has been changed

Originally published as ‘Unethical and gutless’ tactic used to evict tenants and up rent in housing crisis