Surprise support of renter’s request for landlord reference

A man who had his rental application cancelled after requesting a landlord reference has received support from an unlikely figure.

An Aussie comedian who had his rental application cancelled after requesting a reference from the landlord has surprisingly gained support from the head of the nation’s real estate body.

After getting approved for a Sydney apartment Tom Cashman decided to ask the property’s real estate agent for a landlord reference from a previous tenant.

“I wanted to know if the landlord was good to their tenants,” Mr Cashman said, sharing the story on TikTok.

The agent said she didn’t understand the question and asked for clarification before saying the owner would not provide a reference as they were not in contact with the previous tenant.

Mr Cashman questioned the fact the landlord did not have any previous tenants’ emails to get in touch with.

The agent responded: “The owner does not wish to connect the previous tenants and that is not a requirement. All the best with your property search.”

Mr Cashman immediately received a separate email informing him his application to rent the apartment had been withdrawn.

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An Aussie comedian revealed he had his rental application cancelled after a terse back-and-forth with his real estate agent.

Real Estate Institute of Australia president Hayden Groves told news.com.au while a request for a formal reference from a previous tenant was unusual, he thought Mr Cashman’s request was “perfectly reasonable”.

“In the main I’d imagine most landlords would be happy to accommodate,” he said.

“In this market it is a bit trickier because the nature of the market is pretty competitive but it shouldn’t deter other tenants and would-be-tenants in my view to ask these sorts of questions of the property manager to make sure they have a comfortable living experience in their homes.

“Typically the questions tenants want to know is ‘do they undertake maintenance very quickly, are they on to things when things go wrong, do they plan to sell the property in the near term, which would potentially compromise my lease term?’ Those sorts of questions are very reasonable to ask.”

REIA president Hayden Groves said a landlord reference was a reasonable request.

Mr Cashman encouraged others to ask the question.

It was exactly why Mr Cashman said he asked for the reference.

“They ask for about three references asking if I’m a good guy, what about them?” Mr Cashman said in his original video.

“Are you a good guy? Are you going to fix stuff? Are you going to reply to my emails or are you just going to ignore me once I’m in there?”

When asked why he’d been rejected from the property after asking the question, the agent claimed the landlord was looking for a longer term lease application.

But Mr Cashman said that wasn’t a requirement before he got approved.

Mr Groves said the reality in the current market where there was more supply than demand – and some renters were willing to even offer more money to secure property – meant some landlords would instruct the property manager to go with tenants that weren’t making requests.

“By law, they (property managers) have to follow their owner’s instructions,” he said.

However, Mr Groves said withdrawing Mr Cashman’s application without him asking was a brutal way to do it and suggested that perhaps the pressures from a shortage of property managers across the country contributed to the “clunky” exchange.