Coronavirus: Renter told to ‘get f***ed’ by landlord flooded with donations

This renter was left “heartbroken” when she read a rude email her landlord accidentally sent her – now she’s having the last laugh.

Last week news.com.au reported on the “heartbreaking” email a struggling renter in Brisbane received from her landlord, which told her to “get f***ed”.

Violet* had asked for a rent reprieve after her husband lost his job amid coronavirus lay-offs, and was struggling to care for her three children, two of whom are disabled.

In a “reply-all” fail, the landlord sent back to everyone: “These guys can get f***ed.”

“Well what sort of references will they think they will get from you if they behave like this?” he added at the end of the email.

However, just a few days after the article aired, news.com.au can reveal the massive outpouring of support that Violet received.

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We did something like this, explaining two of our children have disabilities and the property manager sent it to the landlord and the landlord hit reply all and said "tell those people to get fucked".
I'm so pleased it worked out for you.

— 💧Violet Green (@thevioletgreen) March 28, 2020

People reached out on Twitter, email and even LinkedIn to get in contact with Violet.

@AlexTurnerCohen Hi Alex, if the story is true about the landlords reply I would be happy to buy Violet the groceries she needs.

— Chris Deal (@dealc) April 2, 2020

An email sent to Alex Turner-Cohen.

Another email sent to Alex Turner-Cohen after the article went live.

From Coles gift vouchers, anonymous donations and even a job offer for her husband, Violet said she was “overwhelmed” by the help.

People even reached out via LinkedIn.

With two children on the autism spectrum, rice milk is crucial to allowing her kids to go to sleep.

But Violet hasn’t been able to find the important household item for weeks in the grocery store.

After hearing of Violet’s plight, Australian and New Zealand milk company Vitasoy reached out to help the struggling mum.

They “are sorting out her rice milk,” the company has since confirmed.

International company Vitasoy also reached out to the struggling renter.

Inundated with messages

Violet had a message for all the good Samaritans who had helped out her family.

“Please tell people who wish to remain anonymous how much I appreciate their support and how grateful I am,” she said. “I feel really humbled.”

That being said, Violet also received a lot of “horrible messages” from Twitter trolls which makes her have mixed feelings about the end result.

Some people managed to track down her husband and sent him angry messages calling the family “greedy”.

Violet pointed out that she hadn’t even asked for a rent reduction – she was simply floating the idea with her property manager, who then passed it onto the landlord.

She’s not the only renter with a (somewhat) happy ending.

Comedian Rose Callaghan found herself out of a job after all entertainment venues were cancelled amid the social gatherings ban.

With no way to pay rent, Ms Callaghan begged her landlord for a rent reduction – and they were more than happy to help.

i emailed asking for a bit of help with the rent because i have zero income and my boyfriend has had his hours halved & our property manager just got back to me & said our landlord is "is happy to help" and has decreased our rent by 100 bucks a week for 6 months 😭😍

— Rose Callaghan (@operation_rosie) March 28, 2020

Ms Callaghan explained to news.com.au how “Within a couple of days I didn’t have any money” after the ban.

“With comedy, the way you work on your stuff is by going out and doing gigs,” she said.

“I’ve been doing comedy for over seven years.

“Then (after the social gathering announcement) the gigs just stopped coming.”

Ms Callaghan is grateful, and she feels sympathetic for landlords, too.

“I know landlords are in a financially difficult position,” she said. “I’ve been lucky.

“I really appreciate people trying to help out. It does make you feel a lot better when people do nice things.”

Rose Callaghan is one of many Australians in the entertainment industry who is out of a job … but her landlord has given her a lifeline.

Other renters have shared similar stories of their landlords reducing their rent.

Although the government has announced a moratorium on evicting renters, this in no way requires landlords to reduce the weekly payment of their tenants.

My lease is due. My landlord asked if I was ok if everything stayed the same. I said yes but would he consider a two year lease, with rent to be reviewed 12 months. He said whatever you want and don’t worry if it gets to a point that you can’t pay - we’ll work it out

— DOOZA ❤️💛 (@sooza60_sue) March 28, 2020

The ‘Kindness Pandemic’

This trend of kindness is becoming more widespread, in what people are calling “the kindness pandemic”.

After a disturbing visit to a supermarket in Geelong, Victoria, Dr Catherine Barrett’s friend told her what she saw.

The supermarket cashier’s arms were scratched and bruised after panic-buyers became violent.

Feeling disheartened with depressing tales plastered seemingly everywhere, Dr Barrett launched a campaign on Facebook called The Kindness Pandemic, encouraging people to print out kind messages and post them around their local supermarket.

Hundreds of spin-off Facebook groups have emerged since then.

“Kindness won’t make coronavirus go away but what it can do is change our experience of it,” she told SBS News.