Sydney tenant Chantelle Schmidt reveals NCAT decision after challenging $350-per week rent hike

A young Sydney woman has revealed the “interesting” outcome after she challenged a whopping $1400-per-month rent increase.

A young Sydney woman who became the face of Australia’s housing crisis has revealed the “interesting” outcome after she challenged a whopping $1400-per-month rent increase earlier this year.

Chantelle Schmidt, 32, who lives in Redfern in inner Sydney, received a notice that her rent would jump by a staggering $350 per week in February, soaring from $1900 to $2600 a fortnight “to bring rent in line with what the current market is achieving”.

Ms Schmidt went viral after posting about her predicament on TikTok, later appearing on Nine’s Today show.

Her landlord subsequently offered a $50 discount to $1250 per week — still representing an increase of nearly 32 per cent from the previous rate of $950.

She and her housemate challenged the increase in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), and on Sunday night Ms Schmidt revealed that the tribunal had rejected most of their claims, affirming the $1250 rate going forward.

However, the tribunal agreed they were entitled to “rent abatement” of $75 per week for the previous year due to defects in the house, entitling them to a refund of nearly $4000.

“Three months later this is the result of challenging that rent increase,” Ms Schmidt said in a video, as she read out the tribunal’s orders.

Chantelle Schmidt took her landlord to NCAT. Picture: @chantellecschmidt/TikTok

“It is ordered that the rent shall not exceed the sum of $875 per week as from February 19, 2022 to February 18, 2023. It is ordered that the rent shall not exceed the sum of $1250 per week as from April 16, 2023, to April 15, 2024.”

In addition to seeking a determination that the rent increase was “excessive”, they also requested 20 per cent rent abatement for the previous year “because of the state of the premises — chiefly a crack in the wall and a defective floorboard in the loungeroom”, and “non-economic loss of $2500 because of mould and pest infestation”.

They also sought reimbursement of some out-of-pocket expenses and an order that the landlord carry out repairs.

“All of these were challenged by the landlord although [the property manager] suggested that the matter be compromised by an agreed more modest rent increase,” the decision said.

The tribunal noted that “the burden of proof” was on the tenants to prove that the proposed rent increase was excessive.

“It is often difficult for tenants to establish excessive rent by citing other properties in the area,” the decision said.

“The number of variables is so numerous and the appeal of features so idiosyncratic that comparability can be elusive. Assessing market rent is an inexact science and the evidence satisfies me that the proper market rent in present conditions is close to the asking price at $1250 per week.”

Sydneysiders lined up to inspect a rental. Picture: Nicholas Eagar/NCA NewsWire

The decision also said that the claim for mould and pest infestation was “a difficult one for the tenants”. “To succeed on this count it would have to be established that mould was the fault of the landlord and accounted to a breach of the tenancy agreement,” it said.

“That level of evidence was not before me. There have been years of unseasonable wet weather which has promoted the growth of mould all over Sydney. I do not doubt that this property is prone to moist conditions but I could not be satisfied that it should be sufficiently laid at the feet of the landlord and that the lifestyle of the tenants was not a major contributing factor.”

NCAT said the pest problem was a similar issue.

“Cockroaches seem to have been the chief culprit,” it said.

“It was not sufficiently explained why these were the fault of the landlord. Every house in Australia has cockroaches. The applicant tenants have been in possession of the premises for two years and it is difficult to see why the landlord is said to be at fault.”

The tribunal also knocked back their claim for repairs, noting the landlord had already fixed a number of issues with the roof and water ingress.

On the issue of rent abatement, “the tenants gave evidence of a long-term problem of a crack in the wall which at times allowed water entry, and a defective floorboard in the loungeroom”. “Both of these items have been brought to the landlord’s attention on several occasions,” NCAT found, noting he had “tried to fix them but without long-term success”.

“I am satisfied that some abatement of rent is reasonable because there is a definite reduction in amenity caused by these factors,” the decision said.

“Doing the best I can with the material before me, I find that a rent reduction of $75 per week for the maximum one-year period is appropriate. This will mean that the tenants are entitled to a rent refund of some $3900 which can be aid in money or dealt with by rent credit.”

Australia is gripped by a rental crisis. Picture: Sarah Marshall/NewsWire

Ms Schmidt commented only that the decision was “interesting”.

In a video last week after coming back from the hearing, she said she was “so keen for this to be over”. “I’m sure an eviction notice will follow unfortunately, it’s just the way the system works,” she said.

It comes after a new report found Australia’s rental affordability has hit its worst levels in nearly a decade.

The ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability report found that the median income household would need to spend 30.8 per cent of its income on rent nationally, and for lower income levels an “unmanageable” 51.6 per cent would be required.

And in March, an Anglicare snapshot found only four rentals across the whole country that were affordable for a single person on Jobseeker, out of more than 45,000 listings.

“Australia’s rental market has seen a sharp decline in rental supply and vacancy for almost three years,” CoreLogic’s report said.

“At April 2023, CoreLogic observed 91,869 rental listings on the market, from a recent high of 181,493 in May 2020. Total rent listings are 38.1 per cent below the previous decade average of 148,259. Rental vacancy rates were 1.1 per cent nationally through the month, below a decade average of 3 per cent.”

At the same time, Australia’s rental market has seen two major surges in demand.

“One was changes in internal migration patterns and housing preferences early on in the pandemic, which saw high rent growth in regional markets of Australia, and house markets between early 2020 and late 2021,” CoreLogic said.

Low supply and soaring demand are both factors. Picture: Luis Ascui/NCA NewsWire

“Capital city unit rents weakened by around 6 per cent, as the closure of Australian borders to overseas migration created a negative shock to rental demand. When restrictions were lifted on overseas travel to Australia, a ‘second wave’ of demand came from a stronger-than-expected return in overseas arrivals.”

As a result, the report said, rent growth is “now more concentrated in capital city markets that are favoured by overseas migrants, and within these capital cities, unit rents are generally seeing higher rates of growth”.

Maiy Azize, spokeswoman for lobby group Everybody’s Home, said the findings showed the need for more investment in social and affordable housing.

“This report shows that average Australian households are in housing stress — housing stress can push people into homelessness and put pressure on the services they turn to for help,” Ms Azize said in a statement on Monday.

“At the same time as record numbers of people are in hardship, our social housing shortfall has never been bigger. We simply cannot end Australia’s housing crisis without more social housing. For the sake of people’s mental health, safety, and financial security, Australia can’t afford to continue delaying building more social housing.”

Ms Azize noted Australia already had a shortfall of 640,000 social homes and that was set to grow. “It’s time for the federal government to invest serious dollars into social housing by building 25,000 of them every year,” she said.

[e-mail]