‘Pathetic’: Landlord’s wild response to renter after clothesline breaks

A renter reached out to their landlord with a maintenance request after their clothesline snapped in half during a storm. The response left them baffled.

A landlord has been slammed online over their “pathetic” response to a tenant’s broken clothesline.

The tenant had submitted a maintenance request after discovering their clothesline had come crashing down in the rain while their clothes were still hanging.

Photos shared on Reddit show the clothesline - which was anchored to the back fence of the property - broken in half after seemingly snapping from one of the frames.

Photos also show parts of the line, including a bolt, appeared aged and discoloured.

However, when the tenant submitted a request to have the clotheslines repaired, they were told it was their responsibility to fix the line, as the owner believed the problem lay with the weight of the wet clothes.

“Our apologies for the delay in respect to your maintenance request,” the tenant received in an email response, seemingly from their real estate.

The clothes line had come crashing down in the rain. Picture: Reddit

Parts of the line appeared aged and discoloured. Picture: Reddit

“The owner has reviewed the request and believes that this may have been avoided if the sheets were not on the line at the time of the rain occurring, causing them to become to (sic) heavy for the line,” the email continued.

“At this stage, the owner has requested that this is your responsibility to rectify.”

The tenant was informed they could reach out if they believed there was another cause for the damage.

“Wet sheets in the rain is now the tenants responsibility (sic),” the tenant remarked in the Reddit post responding to the email.

The tenant shared a photo of a bolt on social media. Picture: Reddit

They were told the owner has requested they rectify the problem. Picture: Reddit

Many online were quick to blast the owner’s baffling excuse and claimed they were attempting to evade responsibility.

“F***ing hell this is cooked. Absolutely f***ing cooked,” one person wrote.

“Your landlord is telling you not to put wet sheets on the clothes line? Call em back, tell em they’re dreaming,” said another.

“All sheets going on the line are wet. The line isn’t fit for purpose,” said another.

“Soooo, any items on the clothesline should in fact be dry when hanging them out? “ another questioned.

“You must only put dry sheets on the line and you must also prevent rain from falling,” another wrote sarcastically.

“What s***s” me is that the agent just blindly let the landlord away with this pathetic response,” another added.

“Typical landlord. Wants someone to pay the house off for them but doesn’t want to spend $100 to fix something,” another commented.

Landlord’s revenge attempt sparks backlash

The landlord isn’t the first to be slammed online.

Last year, a Victorian landlord was called out for their “petty” attempt to get “revenge” on a tenant after he skipped out on rent payments.

Sharing a post in an online discussion forum, the landlord explained their tenant had moved out of the apartment without paying the last two weeks of rent and asked for advice on whether they could retaliate by impacting his credit score.

“So far, the bond does cover for most of the rent/cleaning,” the homeowner wrote in the post on Whirlpool.

“I was wondering how I could report this to credit agencies so it makes a dent to his credit score. Or does the real estate agent do that for me?”

The post was shared on X by renter advocate Jordan van den Berg, who wrote: “Landlord mentality: A tenant owed me two weeks of rent so I took it out of their bond. We’re all even now, but what can I do now to ruin their life?”

The landlord questioned if they could report the incident to ‘dent’ his tennant’s credit score. Picture: Whirlpool

Others also blasted the landlord’s “vindictive” attempt to escalate the matter, labelling them a “horrible person”.

“What a bloody prick! Honestly how vindictive,” one person wrote.

“Horrible person. Unbelievable, where’s the humanity?” said another.

“Why? If everything they owe you is already covered just forget about it and move on with your life,” another questioned.

“Instead of trying to get revenge on someone, just move on with your life,” said another.

Others pointed out neither a landlord nor real estate agent would have the power to affect someone’s credit score.

“Credit score is for credit providers, and a landlord is not a credit provider. The bond already covered everything, so you’re just being vindictive and petty,” one person wrote.

Speaking to news.com.au, lead community education lawyer of Tenants Victoria, Ben Cording, confirmed that was the case.

“The Privacy Act talks about who is a credit provider, so it lists banks and loaners but it makes quite a specific carve out. Under section five, it excludes real estate agents specifically,” he said.

“So that’s good news for the renters,” he added, suggesting it “makes sure that we’re not double punishing people around renting and affecting that essential service”.

Instead, Mr Cording said a tenant who didn’t pay rent or made serious damage to a property could be listed on a renter tenancy database – essentially a blacklist – for up to three years. But they would need to meet certain criteria.

“If you’ve got a compensation claim greater than the amount of the bond and ordered by VCAT (the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal), then you can be listed on a tenancy database,” he said.

“That’s a pretty big stain for people. Three years of getting knocked out of rentals – you can still apply but they’ll do there checks – is a pretty big deal.”

He also said a real estate agent can’t simply take money out of a tenant’s bond without permission.

“This idea that the real estate agent says, ‘I’m just going to take that out of the bond’ is kind of a bit misleading. They don’t actually have any legal rights unless the renter gives them permission, or VCAT gives them permission.”