By Jim Malo
Scott Hudson wasn’t even supposed to move into his Chadstone rental. In a sliding doors moment, the tenants selected by the landlord turned down the lease and he and his partner were offered the home instead.
At the time, he felt lucky; now, he’s not so sure.
Scott Hudson says his home did not meet minimum standards when it was first let to him. Credit: Wayne Taylor
“We assumed that that meant that they had found somewhere else that was better,” Hudson said. “But now we’re always going to wonder what did these people find in this house, of the gazillion things that are wrong with it that we didn’t?
“And why is it on us to have found it?”
He says his home doesn’t meet Victoria’s rental minimum standards. It should, given it was leased out after new laws protecting tenants’ rights came into effect more than two years ago, but still he and his partner are beset by mould, rot and crumbling floors.
There are holes in the roof; water leaks into the home; rot in window frames prevents two-thirds of them from opening; and there’s a heater in the living room – but they were told not to use it.
Hudson said many of these issues were present when they moved in. The lease, seen by this masthead, contains a declaration that the property does meet minimum standards.
The standards – amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act that came into force in March 2021 – state that a home must be structurally sound and weatherproof, free from mould and damp caused by the building’s structure, with lockable windows that can open, and a working heater in the main living area.
The problems with the home became obvious not long after the lease commenced and Hudson said he had tried to get them fixed in the nearly two years since, with little progress aside from cleaning the mould.
Now he’s being evicted because the landlord has said they want to sell the home.
“I don’t know if we would have found a better rental because I don’t think that the house is the problem,” he said. “I think it’s the market, so we probably would have just had the same issue somewhere else.”
Hudson got in contact with accidental tenants’ advocate Jordan van den Berg – known as Purplepingers on TikTok – who produces videos of Melbourne rentals he says do not meet minimum standards to raise awareness.
Van den Berg said homes that didn’t meet minimum standards were leased out “every day”.
“I’ve been doing this since the minimum rental standards were introduced and I’m still doing it,” he said. “The standards exist, they’re good on paper, but at the moment that’s all they are.
Jordan van den Berg uses a handheld thermometer to check for the source of mould in Hudson’s home. Credit: Wayne Taylor
“There’s no real way that a tenant can enforce them without risk of eviction, and until the government actually enforces them actively instead of relying on self-regulation by the industry, they’re just going to be kind of useless.”
Tenants Victoria lead community education lawyer Ben Cording agreed the problem was widespread.
“It was meant to be a guarantee. It is essentially an offence to provide a property and not meet the minimum standards,” he said. “But clearly, it’s not working.
“In the current market, people are taking properties that have mould and are leaking or might not have a toilet in the house.”
The floor in Hudson’s bathroom is sinking. Credit: Wayne Taylor
Cording said the government agency responsible for enforcing the standards, Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV), could be more proactive or further empowered to issue fines.
“One of the possibilities the government can look at is can we authorise the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to do it? Can a CAV officer be authorised to issue infringements on the spot?” he said.
Cording said any tenant whose property didn’t meet minimum standards could apply to VCAT to have a portion of their rent refunded, and there was no time limit on bringing these matters to the tribunal.
The roof of Hudson’s home is broken in several places and the gutters have rotted. Credit: Wayne Taylor
Consumer Affairs Minister Danny Pearson declined to answer questions on the matter, but a spokesperson said the Victorian government had made the strongest rental reforms in the country.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Quentin Kilian said the minimum standards were too stringent, and pushed landlords out of investing by imposing onerous costs on the owners of older properties.
“As an investor you look at it and think, well what’s my return on investment here? Can I recoup that over the life of the property without raising the rent to a ridiculous level?” he said.
“If a landlord has to pump $50,000 into a property they can recoup that somehow and that’s through rent.”
Kilian said increasing enforcement would further lift rents by way of increasing taxes to fund expanded teams within government agencies. He would rather the legislation be amended to make the standards flexible. However, he said all rentals should meet the current standards.
“Whether or not anyone agrees with actual standards at the moment, that’s what they are, and they need to be met,” Kilian said. “There have been issues with recalcitrant landlords. That needs to be a decision that an agency makes about whether or not they lease the property.
“But by law they must not advertise it if it doesn’t meet minimum standards.”