Furious renter exposes dodgy Sydney real estate agent

A tenant in Sydney has shared the scathing reply he sent to a real estate agent who was demanding rent for a property he didn’t live at anymore.

A Sydney tenant has accused a real estate agent of trying to manipulate them into continuing to pay rent for a property despite having moved out.

The former tenant, Lee, shared a text exchange with the manager of the property he used to live in, on Reddit.

He is one of many Australians sharing their frustration at the renting environment as demand exceeds supply and prices soar.

The agent told Lee he owed money as the latest rental payment had only covered him for the previous week, but Lee claimed he had always paid in advance on a Monday for the week ahead.

Lee issued a scathing response.

“I’ve only ever paid for the coming week, never the prior one,” he wrote after detailing his last two payments and asking to speak to someone else for assistance.

“If required I can provide bank receipts for every single one of these payments but doing your accounting for you isn’t really my job. I’m sure you could understand why I’m not paying an extra week rent for a place I don’t live in anymore.”

Texts between the former tenant and property manager. Picture: Reddit / u/lee543

In another message Lee added he had already overpaid given the agent wanted rent up until Friday and his routine payments on a Monday meant he had paid for an extra three days.

Lee told Reddit users the agent was withholding his bond and the dispute had been ongoing for a week.

Disgruntled fellow renters filled the comments with advice, most commonly that Lee should lodge the bond claim himself through the NSW Government’s Rental Bonds Online portal.

“Never let the agent lodge the bond claim. It is up to the agent to dispute the bond claim and they have a deadline to do it,” one person said.

“Yeah always do this, puts the onus on the real estate/landleech to prove why you don’t deserve it back,” another agreed.

Others said he should also demand a refund for the extra rent he actually paid.

Australia has witnessed the fastest quarterly rise in rental prices on record from July to September, according to PropTrack’s market insight report.

Median weekly advertised rents increased 4.3 per cent.

That brings the year-on-year rise to 10.3 per cent, also the largest annual rise on-record.

PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said Australia was experiencing the “tightest rental market we’ve ever seen”.

“It’s a big challenge for renters and ultimately impacts low-income workers and essential workers the most,” he said.