Brisbane landlord’s shocking response to tenant request

An Brisbane man revealed that a simple request to his landlord was met with a chilling response – that the rent would need to raised by $50 a week.

A Brisbane man, who has rented the same house for the past eight years, has revealed his landlord wanted to increase the rent by $50 a week in response to two changes requested by the tenants.

The man said they were due to sign a new lease, so his housemates had asked the landlord to consider putting a screen door on the front door so they could lock it but still have airflow, alongside installing ceiling fans in the bedrooms.

“The response was if you want that the rent will go up by $50 a week,” he said on Twitter.

“I worked out in the eight years that I have been here the house has paid $145,000 in rent. But to do the first actual upgrades in that whole time – they have done literally nothing except repairs – they wanted us to pay more.”

The microbial technician said he had worked out a ceiling fan could be picked up for as little as $50 from Bunnings and a security screen door is a “bit more expensive” costing around $100, but cheaper ones can be found on Gumtree.

The man is based in Brisbane. Picture: Brendan Radke

He added there were obviously labour costs to also factor in, but often the landlord who they rent from privately, gets relatives in to do repairs.

“And that’s still less than the $200/quarter increase we already had,” he said.

It was the first upgrades that had been asked for the entire time they lived in the home and he had stuck with the place as it was a good location for the price, he said.

He defended himself when one woman said the tenants were “asking to add on things, not just repair to the state it was in when contracted”.

“You can get fans cheap new or second hand and can just be wired through the existing light fixture,” he responded.

Many Twitter users shared similar bad experiences with landlords. Picture: iStock

Many Twitter users shared similar struggles of getting simple improvements made to their rentals.

“A real sign that landlords see tenants as ATMs, not people, when basic liveability is treated as a price premium. You could try negotiating same rent but you will pay for the screen door (apologies if you already tried this without success),” said one woman.

Another said they had previously asked for flyscreens on their rental and were told they had to pay for them.

“So we did. Then uninstalled them and took them with us when we left,” she said. “So now we have a stack of fly screens and the frame attachments sitting in our garage because they were custom made to measure for that house. I expect they wanted us to leave them when we moved out, but we were feeling petty about it.”

After the landlord’s response, the tenants had been considering installing their own screen door and removing it when they leave.

“The owners very clearly don’t care about the house itself, there’s been no maintenance, it’s just land value atm,” he said.

Renters in Australia are facing particularly bad news this year as available rental properties are at critically low levels in some parts of Australia, amid predictions that prices are set to explode.

The Brisbane rental market is particularly tight. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire

A recent report from Domain found that capital city house rents have soared by 3.4 per cent over the past quarter hitting a new record high, while unit rents have jumped by 2.5 per cent.

On average, people are having to shell out $499-a-week around Australia to rent a house; for units, the average is $436.

As many as 26 per cent of renters say they are “extremely stressed” with current prices, a recent Finder survey found.

Properties are also being snapped up in record time nationally, with the median days a place is advertised on realestate.com.au being at a historic low of 21 days in December 2021.

People are desperate to find rentals. Picture: iStock

The explosion in demand for rentals has seen some insane situations too.

Back in January, hundreds of renters turned up to a house inspection in Sydney’s southwest causing “mayhem” in the suburban street, with police needing to clear the area.

Recently, a four-bedroom house in Sydney’s inner west was looking for $940-a-week in rent, which seemed like a steal, but there was a catch – there was no bathroom inside the home.

The Brisbane man isn’t the only one receiving bad news from his landlord either.

An Aussie comedian had his rental application cancelled after he requested previous tenants provide a reference for the landlord.