Landlord’s ‘disgusting’ reason for rent increase exposed in wild text messages
A tenant has revealed the “disgusting” reason her landlord increased his rent, exposing the landlord’s wild text message “tantrum”.
A landlord has been accused of increasing a single mum’s rent “out of spite” because she asked him to provide a legal rental increase notice.
The mum-of-two recently shared a text message exchange between herself and her NSW landlord to Reddit, which appeared to show the homeowner adding a further $50 to the rent increase and suggesting it could go even higher all because the tenant asked for the legal processes to be correctly followed.
Under NSW laws, rent can only be increased every 12 months and the landlord must give the tenant at least 60 days written notice before the increase begins.
The notice must include the proposed new amount of rent, the date in which the increased rent is payable and be signed, dated and properly addressed to the tenant.
However, the landlord instead chose to send the tenant a text and inform her the rent would be increasing to $400 that same week, claiming they had discussed the matter “a number of weeks back”.
The renter responded questioning why the landlord hadn’t sent her the legal notice of increase, given she had already asked him in person to send it through, noting he “did the wrong thing last time too”.
“It is meant to be 60 days written notice. You gave me the impression you were going to do it the proper way this time,” she said.
In the comment section of the post, the tenant clarified that the person she is renting from is her best friend’s father.
She refuted his claim that he had previously informed her of the increase, saying he had only “vaguely” said rent would need to increase after Christmas due to interest rates.
She told him this was “fair” and asked him to send through the proper notice, which he agreed to do.
The woman also revealed the place she is renting is a “shipping container home he’s put on a block and I don’t think it’s entirely safe”, adding she is now looking into whether the home is a legal rental and council approved.
It appears the landlord wasn’t happy with being asked to use legal avenues to increase the rent, with the man informing the renter that the price was now $450, instead of $400 as previously stated.
“Yeah right. In that case, you are now hereby notified that in 60 days from today your rent will increase to $450 per week,” he wrote, adding an inspection would be carried out on January 19.
The woman was quick to inform the landlord that a text message does not constitute written notice and all she wanted was for him to issue the correct notice with a “fair rent increase”.
Later, she received another text message from her friend’s father informing her that he had emailed the rent increase notice and water usage bills.
At this point he revealed that, upon further reflection, a further $100 increase on top of the $450 would be considered “fair market rent”.
“As you know I have been providing you with substantially lower rent than the current market for over two years now,” the landlord wrote.
“I have spoken with a local agent and done some online comparisons and am firmly of the belief that fair market rent is now between $490 and $550pw.”
He claimed the agent suggested an increase to $520, noting that “basically” he was still providing her with below market rent.
“As you know I told you two months ago when I was there that it would be $400pw starting 1st of January but since you are insisting on your 60 days notice in writing I am no longer prepared to make your rental discount as generous as it was,” he said.
The woman admitted she was “freaking out” after receiving the final text message, saying she asked the landlord to provide the correct notice because she likes having a “concrete timeline” as she is on Centrelink and would need to adjust her budget.
Reddit users were horrified by the landlord’s response, with many accusing him of retaliation and urging the tenant to take the situation to the rental tribunal.
“I mean, they basically just handed you a case for retaliation right there,” one person said.
Another advised the woman to speak to a lawyer, blasting the landlord’s “disgusting tactics”.
Another wrote: “Absolute scum. This is a terrible situation, being blackmailed like that. I hope things work out for you.”
The text messages were also shared to X, formerly Twitter, by rental advocate Jordie van den Berg, sparking a whole new wave of outrage.
“Imagine waking up and deciding ‘Today I will send evidence in writing of illegal retaliation to my tenants, I’m sure this will be a great idea’,” one commenter said.
“So he’s openly admitting that he’s raising the price because the tenant asked for legal paperwork. What a disgusting human. Literally indefensible position. Can’t wait to see what comes of that,” another wrote.
One simply said: “Gotta love adults who throw a tantrum when someone dares ask questions.”
New monthly inflation data released by the Bureau of Statistics this week showed rental prices climbed by a blistering 7.1 per cent in the year to November, up from 6.6. per cent annual increase in October.
But the Bureau also acknowledged changes to Commonwealth Rent Assistance from 20 September — which increased the maximum rate available by 15 per cent — helped take some heat off price growth.
Excluding these changes to rent assistance, rents would have risen 8.8 per cent over the 12 months to November, the ABS said.
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