She's On The Money - Tenant's Rights

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Did you know that currently 31% of households in Australia are rented, and rent at the moment is 9.1% higher across capital cities and 10.8% in regional areas? With so many of us feeling the pinch, how many of us actually know our rights when it comes to renting? On the show today we’ll be providing an overview of the current rental situation, outline exactly what you can and can’t do as a tenant and we’ll explain what to do if you run into trouble with your landlord. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Currently, 31% of households in Australia are rented. But despite that number being so very significant, surprisingly, few of us actually know what our rights are as renters. Through the show today, we'll be providing a bit of an overview as to where things are at in Australia in 2022 from a renter's perspective. We'll outline exactly what you can and can't do as a tenant, and will explain what to do if you run into trouble with your landlord. My name is Georgia King and joining me, as she always does, is Miss Victoria Devine. Hello, Miss Georgia King.

V, it is no secret that life is expensive at the moment. And while interest rates are going up, which is impacting homeowners, a lot of people living in rentals are also feeling the pinch, myself included. We're facing rent increases, all of that jazz. So to kick us off, can you please provide us a little bit of context as to where things are actually at, at the moment in the rental space. I thought you were going to ask about the rising cost of living. And I'm like, really, do I have to explain that? Like, I feel like we're all feeling it. We all see it. Our coffee prices are now astronomical. Like you don't even get change for a fiver anymore, Jiggy. You really don't. I don't actually use cash. It's just when I tap it, but like, it feels bad when your

coffee is more than $5. It really does. Like, I get it. Like, please don't think that I'm slaying small businesses and think they should lower their prices. I don't. Just still hurts though, right? Absolutely it does. No, keep your prices up, make your margin, get your bank. But you're right. Things when it comes to the rental space are getting a little bit more tricky for literally everyone and renters are certainly feeling it just as much as anyone. Rentals at the moment are 9.1% higher, G King, across capital cities and unfairly 10.8% higher in regional areas compared to June last year. So that is a gigantic jump from my perspective. So an example, because we love examples, we love numbers, we are stats gals. If you were paying $500 a week in rent, that will

jump to an extra 50 bucks a year, which at the end of the year is going to cost you $2,600 more in total. That is literally the cost of a holiday to Fiji. Like 10 days in Fiji, flights for me and my partner return. I was looking the other day on luxury escapes. That's what it's going to cost. But the pace of this increase is also the steepest it's been in 14 years. So it's undeniably a very big deal and something we really need to be talking about. So according to Domain's March rental report, the median rent in Sydney is $600. In Melbourne, it's $450. And in Brisbane, it is $500, followed by Adelaide at $465, Perth at $480, Hobart, surprisingly, I'm not surprised, but I think everybody else will be, $520. She's getting up there. More than Melbourne.

Wait for this. Canberra at $700. You're kidding. Darwin at $610. And that's not what I reckon many would expect. Definitely not. But it's often due to demand. And so Canberra, there aren't that many houses and there's lots of government employees with high incomes so a lot of people who own properties are like let's make hay while the sun is shining right but that's expensive i'm surprised to see that melbourne is only 450 because having i've been looking at rentals for the last six months yeah i keep getting the sign in my inbox to like give you a guarantor like hey can you please recommend georgia king i'm like yes i keep recommending

Georgia can give her a house already. But literally you cannot get, and to be fair, we're looking in the city and sorry, we have got a house now, but we're looking in like Fitzroy and places like that. So north side, she's a little bougie, but you cannot get anything that has like doors and windows that aren't broken for less than $600. So $450, I reckon there's a little bit of mayo on that. I'm a little bit further out and I'm not going to tell you how much I'm paying in rent because to be honest, I'm a little bit embarrassed because it is quite high because we were quite desperado. So we are currently renovating our house, very privileged position to be in, very excited about it. But I think I've spoken about this on the podcast with you.

Once we did all the numbers and realized that it was actually cheaper to have the tradies come in one time and, you know, do all the electricity for the whole house instead of like, oh, do the front part of the house and then the back part of the house, you'd have to pay for two separate sessions, right? So our builder worked with us to do the budgets because obviously I'm a budgeting queen or I like to pretend I am. It ended up being far more financially viable for us to actually move out, rent during that period of time and have everything done at once. So I didn't expect that because I was kind of like, oh, let's just start with the kitchen and then maybe we'll do a bathroom. And so we've ended up biting the bullet to save more money in the long term. But it meant

we needed to find a short term rental. One, that was really challenging to do. And two, it means I'm paying literally double what the median rent in Melbourne is at the moment and the house has so many issues like if you're following me on Instagram you've seen that our ducted heating flooded and when our landlord came over to have a look and help me fix it he was like oh you could just use this small reverse cycle that's in the kitchen at the other end of the house to heat the whole house what mate no our shower flooded and has put mold onto the carpet in the bedroom that's obviously a massive issue. They're like, oh, no worries. We're just going to use, you know, like waterproofing paint. They just painted the base of our shower. Instead of fixing it,

they painted the base of our shower with straight waterproofer, which if you're not a builder, you probably don't understand. But imagine a shower that's tiled and someone's come in with bright blue paint and painted the floor of the shower. So not only is it not aesthetically pleasing, I don't even know if that's legal. That is crazy. But I guess that's what we're going to get to today, figuring out our rights. Maybe that's where this has come from, right? Maybe some people at She's On The Money have been talking about their rental experiences and have been like, you know what, we should do a whole podcast on this. Definitely. And also we should say up the top, hashtag not all landlords. I feel like they may be going to get a bit of a rough

trot in today's episode. We see you beautiful landlords that do the right thing by their tenants, but a lot of them don't. So just acknowledging that up the top as well. This This is maybe a little bit of a dumb question, but is rent going up purely because of interest rates increasing and landlords needing to meet it in the middle, I guess? Look, I think that there's a number of reasons rent is increasing. That is definitely part of it. Homeowners are definitely paying more in their mortgages. As a homeowner, I definitely can be. By the way, if I was a landlord, which one day I would love to be a landlord, no matter how much slack I'm going to get in the community for being a landlord,

I would love to be a landlord. I think I'd be really good. I think I'd be a good landlord. I'd be like, oh, you need a new window? I'm going to help you. You want a heater? That seems like a basic human right. But people are paying more on their mortgages. And unfortunately, that does mean that they have to find ways to, you know, get more income to cover the mortgage. Otherwise, they are out. So they need to recoup those funds somewhere. And unfortunately, tenants often have to shoulder that cost. Many landlords also, G, as you might know, paused rent during COVID for compassionate reasons. So people are probably making up for a little bit of lost time. I remember when I used to rent full time and our rent would probably go up by like 1% or 2% each year. And I'd be like,

yeah, whatever. It's in line with inflation. It always hurt a little bit. But if during COVID, your landlord didn't put it up and then now they're putting it up 5% and you've been there for three years. Like I'm not saying it's fair. It will just hit you a little bit harder because it's such a steep jump, right? Yeah. Okay. Let's move on a little bit here and jump into chatting about renters' rights. Where are we at in 2022? If I'm not mistaken, I feel like there have been some changes in recent times. There have been. My favourite is that you are now in Victoria allowed pets. I don't know all around all of the states, but I know that you're now allowed pets, which is probably my favourite change. But before we dive in, I think it's

really important to state that it does vary state to state. So the best thing you can do is head onto your state-based website and have a look at what your rights might be and how these vary. Obviously, if you're based outside of Victoria, it's a good idea to do your own research and double-check the information that we're going to provide today. Not necessarily because we haven't, just because we wouldn't want you to go and take things as gospel and then find yourself in a little bit of a pickle. That's not what we are about. So as you mentioned before, G, there have been recent changes. And over the last three years, I feel like we've gone really far ahead in comparison to where we used to be and things have become, from my perspective, a little bit

more fair for everybody. Renters now have a few more rights than they used to, which from my perspective is pretty great. It's great. It's fantastic. Good outcome. The changes and established rights that I think would be most relevant to our community include the following. So the first one I've written down is that you can make modifications to your home. So now without permission, you can do things like put hooks up so you can hang paintings and put screws in the wall for shelves. Whereas if you have rented before, you know that this was an issue. I remember in one of my first houses, G, I had used those, you know, those command like sticky strips that don't leave any issue. I would put those on the wall. And they would pop the paint? Well, no, I didn't have that

issue that I remember. Probably did though, just probably ignored it. I do remember filling in a hole in an old house where I had put a screw with toothpaste before I left though. So probably don't tell my old property manager. But I remember having a property manager come in and she's like, you need to take that painting down. And I was like, it's being held up. One, it was a really cheap, very light Ikea canvas. I was like, oh, it's being held up with command strips. And she's like, I don't care. It'll ruin the wall. Take it down. And I was like, okay, no worries. So now you can do that. Money win. Decorating win. I think that's so important because obviously if you can make modifications like that. You can not only add like nice touches to your house,

but it means you can put up like shears or whatever you want that makes your house feel a little bit more like your own. And I think that's important. Like you should feel like that is your home. Next, obviously my favorite, you can have pets. But you do need to seek the permission from the owner of the property before doing so. So basically the landlord needs a very good reason to refuse you now. So that's excellent news for our doggo loving friends. Also, there's no such thing as pet bond, by the way, that doesn't exist. So if your landlord or your agent suggests that, politely tell them that you absolutely will not be paying that. And that is not a thing. I like it. The laws actually state that you don't necessarily have to tell them,

but I would definitely tell them. Play it safe, do the right thing. You don't want to end up in a pickle, but instead of them being able to say in a lease, you can't have a pet. They actually have to have a very, very good reason to not have one. And I can't think of one. So next on the list is we now have quite minimum standards, which means the rental needs to have a fixed heater, cough, and curtains and blinds in bedrooms and living areas. I know that's not the case for Sydney though, because I was talking to one of my girlfriends who lives in Sydney recently about this whole heater conundrum that I have been going through and she's like oh like you are lucky they have standards because in Sydney YOLO really you got mold not their problem. Ew right. That is

naughty. You got mold no worries no blinds for you better pay for them. No heater well you can go to Kmart and buy your own. Jeez Louise that's not good. I know right. There's also new bond limits. So your agent or your landlord can't ask for more than one month's worth of rent as the bond, especially if your rent is $900 or less. Imagine if you had rent that was more than $900 a week. You must be rich. You'd be killing it. This one is interesting because I definitely just paid a bond that was like time and a half of what we pay per month. So that's good to know that I've been ripped off there. It's actually a really good point. I think that in my rental, I definitely have paid more than one month's rent. Oh, spicy content. I hope our property

managers do not listen to our podcast. I've screwed a little bit of a pickle. All right. So the next one obviously goes back to my mold comment, but it's basically if you have mold, a broken air conditioner or damp issues, that's now classified as urgent repairs. I mean, by the classification that our government gave us, not by the classification that my real estate agent seems to live by. The last on my list, G, that I want to share today is that the notice agents or your landlord needs to give your renters before the sales inspections happen if they're planning on selling your house has increased, which I think is really important because historically I have had friends where they have been like, oh my God, like I have to clean my

apartment because my landlord just told me that they're selling the apartment and they're having inspections this week. So I feel like that puts you under unnecessary pressure, but also I feel like standard rules apply. Just use your nows. And if you're not comfortable with something, even if you've looked it up on the website and it doesn't say anything about it, just tell your property manager you're uncomfortable with it and see where you go from there. I feel like knowing your rights is also about really having a level of confidence to be like, I don't feel comfortable with this. Is there something else we can do or an agreement we can come to? And I think that that's really fair too.

Yeah. Brilliant. Okay. What do we do, V, if something goes wrong at our place? Like there's a leak. Oh, we're going to riot. We're going to riot. We're going to riot. Let's go. But also, if the stovetop stops working, how do you know what you're meant to do? Yeah, exactly. Where do we go? So if the repair required isn't your fault, so you didn't break it, the rental provider is actually required to organize and pay for the repairs. If the damage was your fault, though, it's likely that you're going to need to cover those costs. So obviously, have a look at it. When it comes to my examples, I had nothing to do with those. Thank God, because they would have been really expensive repairs. But if you have broken it, as I've always said to just friends

and family that have rented before, they're like, oh, I broke X, Y, Z. I probably should call my real estate agent. I know this probably isn't the most kosher recommendation, but they're going to go through people who are arguably far more expensive. So maybe if your dad knows how to do things, maybe he could pop in and fix that door. Or if you've got a handy friend who could rehang the curtains that you accidentally pulled down, definitely see if you can do that first before alerting them in saying that obviously transparency is everything. We're not saying lie, definitely just see if there's a cheaper option because we're all about saving money instead of getting a massive bill from our real estate agent who went with the easiest and usually most

expensive option. 100%. Okay. Before we actually go and fix things though, G, the first thing you need to figure out is whether or not that repair required is urgent or non-urgent as that's going to actually impact how quickly the repairs are legally required to be made. If it is urgent, that is something that makes it literally unsafe for you to live there. So an example of this is a gas leak, a broken toilet, a serious roof leak, a flooded heater. Yeah. These repairs are actually required to be made immediately. Like you need to get in contact with your real estate agent and go, hey, cool, you need to fix this ASAP. I mean, we can be kind. We're not like, you need to be like, hey, please help, SOS, white flag. If you don't get a response quickly, you can actually organize

the repairs yourself and your landlord or agent is going to need to reimburse you within seven days of you giving written notice of the repairs that were required. Do note though, you can't go wild with this. $2,500 is the maximum amount for a repair that you can actually pass on to them if you're planning to organize it yourself in an emergency circumstance. Anything more than that and they might go, um, Georgia King, that's ridiculous. Yeah, okay. Which I think is fair. Like, there needs to be caps on this stuff.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Otherwise, we'd all be getting, I don't know, smeg ovens. Yeah, oh no, the oven broke. I need a brand new smeg one. Yeah, exactly. Tell me about non-urgent repairs, Faye. So when it comes to non-urgent repairs, this is anything that needs fixing but doesn't necessarily make your home unsafe.

So an example of this, this is happening to me at the moment, dishwasher that is not working or a handle that's come off a door. Non-urgent repairs need to be sorted within 14 days of a written request, though. So there is a time limit, but it's going to take you two weeks. But that's reasonable. But in my experience. My dishwasher has been broken in contrast for three months. Yes.

So that's good. Still broken. They sent someone to fix it the other day. I think they just opened the door and closed it and charged them for it because it's not any better. It's just so bad that like so many landlords are clearly, and not landlords, I feel like it's maybe more so agents as well that just are not adhering to these laws. Because let me tell you, I've had many issues that have not been sorted within 14 days. But do you know what the issue here is?

Is so many times you just don't know your rights. Exactly. So if I said that your dishwasher was broken, you'd be like, yeah, I've emailed them about it. They haven't done anything. It's so annoying. Like Georgia, you can report them. Yeah. Like you can take that to VCAT.

You can take it further. But the thing is, most people aren't willing to do that. and most real estate agents, they know you don't know that. So they're like, oh, I've got more important things to do. Like I've got, you know, other tenants to get in because they all work on commission, right? So like they're not going to prioritize your fixed dishwasher when they actually want to get bums on seats in other houses, right? Like they've got priorities and I can completely understand from a business perspective why they're making those decisions, but that's just not fair. And in saying that, it's probably worth noting here, again, you already made this point. It's

not all property managers. It's not all real estate agents. And like people are only ever going to talk about this stuff when it comes up and it is actually a sticky topic. Like we're not going to talk about it when our landlord is doing the right thing. It's like, I'm not going to go to dinner and be like, do you know what I did today, Georgia? I had a really great chat with my landlord who really respects my house and my living situation. Like it's just not going to happen. So if you are a property manager and you're like, I don't do any of this stuff, Victoria, like we see you we know you don't but unfortunately in our community there are too many people having negative experiences and in our team having negative experiences which has led us to being

like you know what we're going to do an entire episode on this because we want to know our rights exactly right we want prenup we want prenup yeah V on this I was going to ask you this a little further down the show but I'm going to bring it up now because it does tie in perfectly When I had my issues with our property, and it was the property agent who I had many, many issues with, I suggested that perhaps we wouldn't pay rent until- Spicy. And you had the most cooked situation. It was horrible.

And he was not getting shit done. And I had to be a bloody current about it. But I feel like maybe I will, Sam, if you're listening. anyway but the point is I felt like I didn't have any leverage to use I felt like I had no power because he was basically like George if you don't pay your rent or if you like threaten me in any way that's going to come up against your like record for future rentals so you don't want to be doing that little missy and I was like excuse me I have no power yeah okay so in this situation you absolutely do have the power and he would just be intimidating you. However,

it is really important to note that even though we do definitely have tenants' rights, obviously you can have a little black mark put against your name and it might come up. And I'm not saying that this is a good thing. I just hear this in the real estate industry. I seem to hire a lot of people who have worked in real estate into She's On The Money who I think want to work in a similar space, but maybe have a different impact. And so I talk to them, a lot about it. And, you know, real estate agents do talk. They're friends with other real estate agents. And, you know, as much as I don't want this to be true, like if you had a negative experience with one company and you're moving within the same suburb, like they do talk.

They'll be like, oh, hey, do you know Georgia King? Oh, yeah, she was a pain in the ass. All right. Well, maybe we just won't give her the lease. And I know that that's not right. And it definitely is illegal, but it doesn't mean it's not happening because if they're all texting each other and helping each other out. It's like a friend's group chat, right? Exactly. I'm going to talk smack about you, J. King. You're going to do it? I'm going to do it. I'm going to talk about it. But also you literally have to put down a rental reference. So you have to put your last property manager on any applications for future property. You can put me down. You can just say that I was your landlord and we just did it direct. Just like yeet them straight out. I'll be

like, yep, she rented from me. She was flipping perfect. That is what I need to hear. Okay. Well, V, one more question before the break. In terms of increases to rent, which we spoke about at the start of the show. When can landlords actually do that? Like, can it be in the middle of a tenancy? And how big can the increase be? Or is there really no limit? So, rent now, there's a new law. Rent can now only be increased once during a 12-month period before the changes over the last couple of years. That has increased from once every six months. So, I remember in my last rental, they were increasing it every six months. And I actually went back and said no, and it worked. They were like, oh, we're going to put the rent up to this. And I was like, oh no,

I actually don't agree with that. And it did require a little bit of research. So on the realestate.com.au app and on the domain app, what you can do is go and look up leases in your area, but you can actually just do current location. And I found it so easy because I was like, all right, I just filtered it by, you know, I had a two bedroom house, I had one bathroom, it had, you know, a car park. I just filtered that and then did in my area. And I was like, okay, cool. because I'm pretty sure on my last property, I was paying like $500 a week rent. And that was pretty good for the area that we were in. But each time that they were putting it up, I remember it went up 500, then it was 525 and then it was 550. That became a little bit big. And I remember when

it got to 550 and I was like, okay, like, yeah, I'll accept that. But when they were like, oh, it's going up to 575. I was like, do you know what? No, absolutely not. So I went on the apps and I looked up similar properties in the area and I was like, no, you're not actually going to put this up because here are all these other properties that are $500 a week. I'm already paying $550. I'm not trying to beat you down, but definitely can't increase it. And the real estate agent came back and said, yeah, I just passed this by the landlord because often your property manager is just the messenger. They're not the person going, oh, just put it up. They just want their job to be easy. They don't want to have to find new tenants if they don't have to. So they

were like, oh, we're the messenger. We did go back to the landlord and they've agreed they won't put it up. And I was like, great. It was worth doing that. So it's not just about knowing your rights. It's about going like, oh, what if I do push back on this decision that they're making? It worked for me. Why wouldn't it work for you? In saying that, if you're on a fixed term rental agreement, the percentage amount or however the rent increased is calculated needs to be outlined in your rental agreement. So always go back to your rental agreement. I feel like that's the thing that you just stuff in the bottom shelf or in the bottom drawer like you know how it goes cutlery drawer then you've obviously got your tool flippers then you've got the drawer for your like

glad wrap then bottom drawer where all of the rogue elastic bands are where the you know the batteries that you've kept the batteries the batteries do you keep super glue in that drawer too i keep super glue in that drawer string from time to time yes string when you're gonna need sticky tape, the duct tape that you used when you moved three years ago. So that's where my lease agreement was. Remember it, keep it there and bring it out when you need to and make sure that you know what is outlined in your agreement because sometimes people will say things and you go, you can't do that because the agreement you gave me doesn't say that at all. So tenants, i.e. you, should be aware of the potential increase that you might be up for because it

should be in your rental agreement. If not, have a little conversation with your property manager. Nice. The other thing I would say here before I go on, because there's actually two other points I want to make, is my favorite way of communicating with property managers is in writing. One, it's less confrontational, but two, you get a paper trail. And if the proverbial hits the fan, you can actually just go, cool, save these emails, send to VCAT, and you're in a better position. If it's always via the phone and you're feeling like you're in a bit of a pickle and your property manager prefers to communicate via phone, because some of them do, do a little journal

entry. Just write down the conversation you had, keep note of it because I guarantee they didn't. And if push comes to shove and you need to bring it up, you can be like, well, on the 9th of the 12th, I did this and I had this conversation with you and this is what was the outcome of it. You've documented it. My favorite way to document, as I've said a million times before, is to email yourself because it gets timestamped. So instead of being like, oh, I just made this up today because I decided. No, no, no. It's like, well, here is the proof that I emailed it to myself on the day of that phone call. It was fresh. That was what happened in the phone call. Anyway, I won't go on and on. So the law doesn't stipulate how much rent can go up,

but the four most common ways are in accordance with CPI, the statewide rental index, which would exist and be different for different states and territories, by a fixed percentage increase or by a fixed dollar amount. So my experience that I was talking about before, they just did fixed dollar amount. They weren't talking about percentages or CPI. They were just, I guess, seeing what they could get. I didn't really appreciate that. And I let them know that politely, of course, because you know what we do at cheese on the money kill people with kindness that's it that's the way to do it always kill them with kindness also the landlord or your property manager is actually required to give tenants 60 days notice that there's going to be a rental increase before

putting it into effect so if your landlord messages you and said hey i'm putting the rent up don't stress too much you actually do have two months and that's why it's smart to go back to them and go hey like maybe i can't afford this please know that everything in the entire world it's negotiable. I mean, you can't go to Coles and be like, I don't really want to pay this for my Cadbury cream eggs. But what you can do, that's all I can think of. And Jessica Ricci is obsessed with them. But you can go back and have a bit of negotiation time, but also 60 days as a renter. I know it feels like short notice, but also don't let people take the mickey. Maybe it is time like you did, G, to find a new rental. Literally. Well, that's what happened with us. Sorry to

bring it back to us. But when I asked for a rent decrease, they were like, we're actually increasing the rent. And I was like, okay. And you were like, what? Absolutely not. One of my girlfriends, Rose, actually, she was renting and this was actually international. Yeah. So this was in Canada when she lived in Canada. She was renting on, I think like the 14th floor of an apartment complex and on the like 16th floor. So the higher you get an apartment, usually the more bougie the rent is. She saw on the 16th floor that it was like a hundred dollars less or something for a better apartment. So she was like, I don't want to move. I just want a better deal on the apartment I've got because that's a nightmare. They didn't do it. They were

like, no, you can have your rent. And she's like, okay, cool. I'll just move upstairs. So she just moved upstairs. No moving costs because she just had her mates put it in a lift. I'm sure that experience is pretty common because I think landlords just go, nah, she won't do it. And then you do it. Yeah. And then it feels quite good. V, let's take a little break here. But on the other side, we're going to be chatting about what to do if things do turn a little bit hairy between you and your landlord slash agent. So don't go anywhere. VD, let's jump straight back into it. When it does come time to leave our rental, exactly how schmick does our house actually need to be? Just to bring it back to myself once again,

I have spent maybe 12 hours probably more literally scrubbing hands knees it's literally the worst isn't it it's so bad and it's different doing a whole house compared to like just your bedroom when someone else moves in or whatever it may be but I'm paranoid that they're going to ask us to have it professionally cleaned even though we've spent so much time doing it so how clean does it actually need to be when I moved out and I was like are you taking the mickey because when we moved out of our townhouse when we purchased yeah I was like yeah okay no worries I didn't have time she's on the money was crazy we paid a professional cleaner and we still got feedback they were like oh the stove top hasn't been cleaned properly and I was like I was a little

bit salty because I was like has this professional not done what they needed to do like I paid for this so I went over and I was like what on earth like this is not gonna get cleaner I obviously cleaned it. I like was there with even Domestos, like scrubbing it. My hands smelt like Domestos for days. And then they were like, oh yeah, thank you for doing that. And I was like, I still don't understand. I think it was like a power trip thing. I don't know. Anyway, I don't love the smell of Domestos on my hands for days. Not great. But contrary to popular belief, and despite what any agent might tell you, Georgia King, you aren't actually required to have your property professionally cleaned. You don't have to do that at all.

All you have to do is return it to the condition that it was in when you took over the keys and you got that lease and you get to also take into consideration wear and tear because obviously life happens. Although most people will have been told that their carpets need to be steam cleaned before vacating, that's actually untrue. Crazy. Yeah, you don't actually have to do that.

You can push back against your agent if they're asking you to do that and you can push back against your agent even if it's in your rental contract. Really? Actually, you can't enforce that. Because even if it's in the contract, the law actually overrides whatever is in your contract. So remember that. And if they do need a proper clean though, like get them clean. Like in the house that I'm currently renting, we have carpets. I would say we're pretty clean. We do have a cleaner that comes every week. Like that's so self-indulgent, but it's like the best thing we've ever done. And I could not function

as a human without it so let's just be honest here yeah but we have a professional cleaner coming in every single week so like george our carpets are in good condition yeah but because i have pets i am going to get them professionally cleaned when we leave without question it's fine however if you're not in that circumstance and you're like these carpets are fine push back my friend yeah steam cleaning she's spenno yeah that's three or four hundred dollars it's so much money yeah that's naughty you're looking a bit salty did you have to pay for professional have done that in the past. Damn, girl. I've been so badly burned. V, what would you say the most common issues are that renters face? Bond claims. Yep. Trying to get your bond back is like pulling

teeth from my experience and all of my friends' experience and the experience of She's On The Money, it seems. Leases, repairs and maintenance, rent increases suck and vacate notices are the main qualms that Consumer Vic deal with. In terms of bond returns, Victoria, how long do landlords or agents have to return that money to us. So if you lodge your bond return and landlord has absolutely no reason to make a claim, because don't forget that the bond exists for a good reason. Like if you're a little bit of a pickly person and you've maybe not done the right thing, that bond exists so they can be like, oh my gosh, G King had five cats and they have weed on the carpet and we now need to replace the carpet. That's what your bond is for. So if it's valid,

then I understand why they're trying to claim that in saying that you do need to be really careful with your bond. So if, gee, let's use your five cats example, and they needed to replace the carpet, your property manager will likely approach you before, you know, making a bond claim and be like, gee, we actually need to replace the carpets. Do you want to pay for that? The answer is usually if you can afford it, yes, because then you can always say on future lease agreements or future rental applications that know you've never had bond taken away from you. You've applied for a property recently and I guarantee there would have been a box to say, I have always been refunded my bond in full. Yeah, true. So it's important to know that. Don't just be like, oh, whatever,

they can take it out of my bond because that's actually documented and could put you in a pickle when applying for future houses. Because, you know, as a landlord, I'm not a landlord yet, but if I was a landlord, I would want to be in a position where I'm like, I don't want G if she's not got her bond back every time because you don't know the semantics of why that's the case. It could have just been like, gee, being lazy and not wanting to do something, but I would literally pay for it. So important to know that. But if you lodge your bond return and landlord has no reason to make a claim against your bond, it will take anywhere between 14 and 20 days. The most common approach though, is that your landlord or your agent is going to lodge the

claim. And in that case, the bond will be paid within one business day if using RBTA online. So, it's like the online platform that your bond would have gone through. The landlord or agent can then only start the claim and get the ball rolling once all tenants have agreed on how the bond should be divided and they have to start claims within 10 business days of the lease ending. So, there are actually some things around it. If your bond's taking months to get back, which we have heard in the She's on the Money community before, inappropriate.

Inappropriate. Inappropriate. Incorrect. The landlord might also, landlord's such a weird word, isn't it? It is. The landlord. The landlord. The lord of the land.

Yeah, it's quite strange. The king of the house. Like, sit down. Sit down. You're a homeowner and you're letting me live in your house. We are equals in this house. Landlord. Why not landlady?

Landlady. I am the landlady. One day I'll be a landlady. Anyway, landlord, they might make a claim for compensation if the property is damaged. Fair call. Fair call. Don't be a silly willy. and if you fail to pay any remaining rent it might be taken out of your bond and if the house isn't

reasonably clean or you've made alterations to the house without asking they need to be returned to how they were so you know how we said before oh now it's great you can put photo frames up and you know you can put shelves up be aware that if you don't have your landlord's permission for that which you don't need yep you do have to return it to the original quality that it was at before so you need to take down the shelf and patch up those holes. Do not take my recommendation and fill them full of toothpaste like 20 year old Victoria did because that's actually inappropriate and I would say illegal. Did I get away with it though? Yes. She got away with it. But TLDR of all of that, your landlord or your agent isn't actually allowed to claim for reasonable wear

and tear. So if it's like, oh, well, this looks pretty used or there's like, you know, wear on the carpet from where you've walked in and out. It's like, well, I've cleaned it. It was looked after. That's actually reasonable wear and tear. And also, I'm pretty sure if the carpet's more than 10 years old, they can't make any claim on it at all. Oh, really? Yeah. My next question to you was what actually is fair wear and tear, but there you go. But really, whatever is considered to be reasonable use of a property. So faded curtains, like that happens all the time because sunlight bleaches everything, a few marks on the walls, damage from environmental forces. But if anything's actually broken or damaged, then you might need to cover the cost of that. So I think

that's quite fair when it comes down to it. But also some agents might be like, that's beyond wear and tear. Like, okay, well, get a second opinion. Call Consumer Vic, bye. But according to Consumer Vic, it's what most people think is fair, though the law doesn't actually define it, Which is why I said, like, if you're in a pickle, just ask or get a second opinion. And if there's a disagreement between you and your landlord or your agent on what is reasonable, then escalating that decision to VCAT or your state's equivalent can actually help figure that out. Easy.

Also, historically, I don't mean to be a Karen. I sound like a Karen. You also sound like a Karen in this episode. Yeah, we are Karens. It's just who we are as people. Not necessarily escalating it to VCAT without letting them know. I think sometimes sending a nicely, kindly worded email being like, hi, Georgia, thank you so much for that.

Unfortunately, like this hasn't been resolved in a reasonable period of time. I'd love to work it out between us. If there's anything I can do to help you, let me know. Otherwise, I might have to just engage VCAT and see what my rights are. So weird. Things usually jump real quick after that. So feel free to use that first because it's obviously less process, but also lodging a claim as I found out recently with VCAT cost $70. Oh, does it? I don't know why I know that.

Okay. Interesting. The final question for today, if we are having issues with our agent or our landlord, what can we actually do? You can go out for breakfast with your friends. You can have a little bit of a feature about it. You can have a vent. You can get on the mic. You can get on the mic and do an entire podcast about it. But if you're not able to sort things out by chatting with your agent or your landlord, which I'd always recommend first, like please don't just go report people if they don't even know that there's an issue. Like I'm just very much about open lines of communication. And if your communication hasn't been respected, then we can take it further. But you can get in touch with consumer.vic.gov.au who can guide you. Obviously, if you just Google

tenant rights and your state, it should come up who your local body is and use them. If that doesn't help, you can escalate things by going to VCAT, which is aka the Victorian Civil and administrative tribunal. And if you are going to escalate, it's really important to make sure that you have evidence for your case. So as I said before, we document everything. We make sure that we have photos and videos. We make sure that, you know, if you're saying that your shower is leaking, you are taking lots of photos because it's easy for people to go, well, she has no proof and we fixed it. Yeah. So make sure that you document everything. And as I said before, if it was a phone call, just send yourself a quick email being like, hey, had a phone call

with Georgia today, told Georgia about my leaky shower and my leaky shower did this, this and this. They said they'd get back to me by X date. Like it's not hard, but I promise you, if you want to make sure that your rights are upheld, we actually have to have documentation. They will expect it. So obviously keep hold of any of that because it might help get your dispute settled faster. Perfect VD. So I feel like moral of the story, we have more rights than we think we do. We need to stand up for ourselves. Money win. And money win. See you on Friday. Bye guys. the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and

should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy a financial product read the pds tmd and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.