Our rent increased by $300 a week. It feels like it should be illegal – but it’s not

The “Great Australian Dream” is dead – that’s a statement repeated often enough in Western Australia (and nationally) as house prices continue to climb.

The reality is that now, you can’t even rent that dream.

I rented my first property on my own at 21, earning minimum wage in my first journalism gig.

But seven years later, renting anywhere in WA on your own seems almost impossible, unless you’re earning well above the minimum – or even the average – full-time wage.

Even with two to pay the bills, renting is a challenge.

My partner and I were fortunate to be paying below the median rent price for the area we live in, so when our landlord announced he was selling the property to another investor, we knew it was a matter of time before the new owners announced an increase.

The email came on a Thursday evening.

“Thanks for being great tenants, we are pleased to offer you a new lease!” it read, before dropping the bomb.

Staying on would mean a 50 per cent increase in rent – or almost $300 per week – well above the median price for the area, and beyond what we could afford.

We wrote a letter asking for a reduction and explaining the new price was simply not possible for us without causing significant financial stress.

The property manager came back offering $50 less per week. A small win, but still not enough for us to be able to stay.

Of course, landlords have every right to increase the price by however much they like.

That’s the problem.

Landlords were prohibited from hiking rents more than once a year and “rent bidding” was also banned under the WA government’s strengthened tenancy laws, which passed parliament last year.

While these changes were heralded as a great step forward, they also received staunch criticism for doing nothing when it came to the amount the rent could increase by.

Greens MLC Dr Brad Pettitt slammed the new laws when they were first announced, insisting they could make the situation worse for renters.

“Limiting rent increases to once per year simply means struggling renters will be slugged with a massive increase in one go,” he said.

“The government has effectively written off renters as second-class citizens.”

There are no caps on how much a landlord can increase rent nationally, except for in the ACT, where landlords can only increase rent by the rate of inflation for Canberra rentals, plus 10 per cent.

In some instances, WA renters can take their case to the magistrates court if the landlord increases the rent more than once per year, gives less than 60 days’ notice, or has possibly hiked the price as a retaliatory action.

But, as Circle Green tenancy principal lawyer Alice Pennycott told me, the onus falls on the renter not the landlord, and the decisions are not made public, which makes it difficult to know the success rate of those cases.

Other states also have better protection for renters who want to push back on increases or ask for repairs, and better protection against no-grounds evictions.

“Rent can skyrocket every 12 months and there’s not much you can do,” Pennycott said.

“I don’t agree with freezing rent increases altogether, but we need a percentage cap, and there should be more responsibility on landlords to prove why increases are needed.

“Have their mortgage repayments changed, have they made significant upgrades to the property, that kind of thing.”

Pennycott said about 33 per cent of people asking for advice had been given a rent increase between $50 and $100 per week, while about 28 per cent were querying increases over $100 per week.

The worst case that has come across her desk was an increase of nearly $600 per week.

Pennycott said while she was getting a similar number of inquiries, the number reporting bigger rent hikes was growing.

Tenants being forced to leave or – for those with no other options – to fork out well above their means is a sad reflection of the current market.

The lack of rules means my partner and I are about to lose the place we have called home for more than three years. Luckily, we do have options.

But we’ll miss the giant bathtub, and the neighbour’s cat who runs over to say hello, and even the Alanis Morissette cover band that likes to practice nearby every Tuesday evening (they’re actually quite good).

If you’re a landlord, particularly one with multiple investment properties, you should consider taking things into your own hands and capping rent increases yourself until the law catches up.

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