Australian rental crisis: Agent asks renters for ‘virtual tour’ of current home

An Aussie real estate agency has been slammed for their extreme rental application process others have labelled a privacy violation.

A Melbourne real estate agency has been slammed for asking tenants to provide “virtual tours” of their current homes when applying for new properties, which experts say could be viewed as a potential violation of privacy.

Melbourne real estate agency DK Property Partners has asked a prospective tenant to provide a video walk-through of their current home as part of their tenancy application for a West Footscray rental.

Rental advocate and Victorian Socialists’ senate candidate Jordan van den Lamb, known as Purple Pingers on social media, has slammed the agency for the surprising request.

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The email has shocked Australians.

Mr van den Lamb said the request was unsurprising considering how tight the rental market was, with real estate agents knowing they could get away with anything because they’d still find a tenant at the end of the day.

“The rental market is incredibly tight and people can’t afford it so that results in real estate agents pushing the boundaries,” he said.

“Real agents break the law everyday.”

Multiple social media users called for the agency to be reported to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal or to Consumer Affairs Victoria.

Rental advocate Jordan van den Lamb called out the move by the agents asking for virtual tours.

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“This is actually disgusting. F—k renting is a nightmare,” megpea replied on social media.

“Why is an application for a 13 month lease more invasive than a 30 year mortgage wtf,” said sayllk.

“Wow it’s west Footscray and the agent speaks as if it’s for a property in Toorak. Unbelievable,” said minorfire.

“Sounds like a great way to get robbed tbh,” said thephlegmfatale.

“Oh that’s a big hell no - pretty sure some of that isn’t legal or can’t be used for a rental application,” said unelysian_artstudio.

The property is located in West Footscray, in Melbourne’s West.

However, DK Property Partners Melbourne operations manager Huy Hoang Ho said the prospective tenant didn’t provide enough information about themselves, and occasionally, leasing managers asked to inspect their current home in these situations.

“What we do is ensure that the people we put into our properties are of a calibre that we can confidently manage their tenancy,” he said.

“We’re willing to say, hey, listen, your application is not that great because you’re missing this, that and the other. But how can we move this forward?

“We are looking at the interest of our clients, both our renters and our landlords.”

He added that the applicant hadn’t responded to communication from the agency following Mr van den Lamb’s social media post.

While the Residential Tenancies Act doesn’t explicitly state agencies can’t ask to tour, virtually or in person, a rental applicant’s current home, Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine said the request strayed into being a potential violation of privacy.

“I don’t think it would pass the pub test with the vast majority of the renting public,” Mr Caine said.

Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge said potential landlords didn’t have the right to tour a renter’s existing home.

“We would advise all renters against ever providing this,” Ms Beveridge said.

“We know that landlords want great tenants, but it’s important that they also recognise the humanity of the people they’re considering.

“They don’t have a right to intimate personal information.”

She added that they knew there was a power imbalance between landlords or agents and renters, and when vacancy rates were low, that balance was exacerbated.

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Originally published as Australian rental crisis: Agent asks renters for ‘virtual tour’ of current home