Victoria rent crisis: Mould, cracked walls and broken doors rife among rental homes on the market

As the rental crisis deepens across Australia, tenants are being forced to accept close to unliveable conditions, from ripped carpets to doors held closed by a carabiner.

Victorian tenants are facing a lucky dip of ripped carpets, mouldy bathrooms and cracked walls as they turn up to inspect homes advertised with 15-year-old photos.

The true scale of the state’s worsening leasing crisis has been revealed with homes being openly advertised in poor condition even as rental professionals claim others are being listed with misleadingly old photos, despite landlords asking for thousands of dollars a month.

Some renters are choosing to live in properties with unstable deck, backdoors that can’t be closed and putting up with mould infestations rather than accept even worse homes as they find themselves priced out of liveable residences.

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A three-bedroom home in Collingwood was leased this week with an outhouse described as adding “a touch of practicality to the lower level, enhancing your daily routine” for $650 a week online. The same home has a bath tub installed in a room that’s barely as wide as the door.

In regional Victoria, a Shepparton home that was listed this week had carpets worn through to the underlay, stained walls and visibly damaged kitchen cabinets.

Tenants are also being asked to consider spending $689 a week for glass-walled bedrooms in what appears to be a converted Thornbury office building, and even a tiny CBD apartment with a living space too small to fit a couch into but still seeking $420 a week.

Narrow bathroom found in a rental in Collingwood last listed for $650 a week.

An outhouse in the courtyard.

The external toilet.

Rental Search Australia co-founder and director Jade Costello said tenants never know if they will arrive to find a home in reasonable order or a dump, with the majority of properties listed using misleadingly dated photos.

“Nine times out of 10 the photographs that are used on rental listings are from when the property was sold last time and this can be something like 15 years ago, if not more,” Ms Costello said.

“But there’s been so many tenancies in between that time that the likelihood that a property looks like that is so far and few between; that happens nearly every time.”

Rental Search Australia employees have also reported homes with no visible form of heating, despite it being a minimum rental standard, as well as mould and damp — especially in bathrooms.

A home in Shepparton up for rent with carpet worn down to the underlay.

Cabinetry in the kitchen in poor condition.

Ripped carpet in the living room.

And with PropTrack data showing Melbourne’s vacancy rate dipped to just 1.19 per cent in August, the second lowest level they have recorded, tenants are having to settle for the dives.

The homes are still being listed for rent despite more than 130 amendments made to the Residential Tenancies Act that came into effect in 2021.

Tenants Victoria director of community engagement Farah Farouque said while they were good laws on paper, enforcement remained a problem with broken toilet repairs and mould treatments being delayed in “far too many cases”.

“Essentially many renters tell us they must be their own ‘rental cop’,” Ms Farouque said.

A Deer Park residence posted in the Facebook group "Don't Rent Me".

Rippling carpet found in the home.

A single mum with two young children who reported feeling “really unsafe” to Tenants Victoria shared how her rental had an “unstable” back deck with exposed nails, missing windows in a sunroom, other windows that didn’t close properly and a back door “held together with a hook and a carabiner” that also didn’t shut properly.

A retail space offered as a place to “live and work from home” listed for $550 a week.

Rooms with glass doors.

Concrete floors.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Quentin Kilian said tenants, agents and rental providers needed to maintain open communication.

“We appreciate that minimum standards are important, and all properties must meet the Rental Minimum Standards,” Mr Kilian said.

“We also understand that there are instances where tradespeople may not be available or a shortage of parts, etc … delays repairs.”

One Springvale property advertised online with ripped and worn carpets this week was updated with new photos showing repairs had been made.

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Originally published as Victoria rent crisis: Mould, cracked walls and broken doors rife among rental homes on the market