Renata believes the playing field needed to be levelled in the rental market and wants landlords to hand over more of their information. (Source: Supplied)
An Australian renter who could be facing her second eviction of the year due to her landlords no longer being able to afford their investments has called for the stringent application process tenants undergo to become a two-way street.
Sydney renter Ranata had to leave her Canterbury home of four years when her landlord fell into “financial difficulties” and terminated her lease in January. She told Yahoo Finance finding a new home became a “full-time job”, and was stunned when just seven months into her new lease, she was told the home was being put on the market.
This time, her new landlord had lost their job, and just like her last home, they had decided to sell.
Renata, like the near three million renters in Australia, feels at the mercy of a landlord she knows nothing about.
“We need to know if you’re renting out one property or multiple properties, and how you’re affording it,” she said. “Because whenever something happens, we are the ones who have to look for somewhere else to live.”
She has called for landlords to provide financial documents and references to prospective tenants to level the playing field in the country’s rental market.
“We have to give our 100 points of ID, so that’s our passports, Medicare, and licence details,” she told Yahoo Finance.
Are you a landlord and want to give your thoughts on this idea? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com
“Then they wanted the tenant ledger from previous rentals, four weeks of pay slips, as well as your bank statements for the last month, so they can have a look at every expense that you’ve made.
“They also wanted a gas or electricity statement. They wanted all of those documents before they even started processing the application.”
Lina Przhedetsky, a research fellow from the University of Melbourne, recently wrote about the “staggering” amount of information prospective tenants have to hand over.
She said people have been asked to give copies of marriage certificates, documents related to their medical history or lifestyle, or even to take a personality test.
Some real estate agencies use third-party apps for tenants to submit this information, which highlights other major concerns about possible data breaches.
“The protections in place to safeguard renters’ personal information are, by and large, inadequate,” she said.
The unprecedented surge in rental prices has started to ease, however, the vacancy rate is still extremely low in many parts of the country, meaning tenants don’t have many options to find a new place to live.
The latest SQM Research data showed the national median rate fell to 1.2 per cent in July.
Not only that, but government figures showed that since mid-2022, rent prices for almost all properties (80-95 per cent) with new tenants were higher than the rents charged to the previous tenants.
Father Matthew Lorenzon recently faced his second eviction in four years and told Yahoo Finance that moving didn’t just have a financial impact — there’s a mental and physical toll on every member of the family.
“Real people suffer when landlords want to play trading cards with their property portfolios, and I’m not sure that landlords think about the accumulated cost of relocation when they kick out a tenant,” he said.
“You develop a choreography of your life when you live in a home in a community, and moving even a couple of suburbs away means re-choreographing your life.
While there are rules protecting renters from being evicted in certain circumstances, there’s little stopping those on periodic leases from being booted out if the property goes on the market.
Matthew Lorenzon was evicted from his second rental property in four years and said the law needs to change to protect people like him. (Source: Instagram)
Renata would also like to see landlord references from former residents.
“I know a few people who have requested repairs, and landlords actually haven’t done anything, but they are putting up the rent every year,” she told Yahoo Finance.
“If we had that information, then we would know to stay clear from those types of landlords, because there are some amazing ones, and then there are some who are really difficult.”
This idea has been floated before in Australia.
Back in 2022, comedian Tom Cashman went viral after posting a video on social media calling for this practice to be set up.
“It occurs to me I’ve never heard anyone ask for this, but they [the landlord] ask me for like three references to see if I’m a good guy; what about them?” he said.
He tried this while applying for a home, but the real estate agent ended up rejecting his application.
Aussies are actually well within their rights to request landlord references, but there is no requirement for them to be handed over.
Leo Patterson Ross, CEO of the Tenants’ Union of NSW, said Australia could adopt a system similar to Scotland, which requires landlords to get a license.
They are then chucked onto a searchable database, and prospective tenants can look them up to see if there have been any complaints against them.
Better Renting CEO Angela Cartwright told Yahoo Finance it’s unlikely Renata proposal will come to fruition.
“It’s pretty depressing that some renters are resorting to calls for landlords to provide information about their ability to weather financial challenges and provide a stable home, particularly when renters are required to provide considerable documentation to assure prospective landlords about their capacity to pay rent,” she said.
Cartwright said she would rather see additional reforms and enforcement measures to give renters more stability.
This included further protections against unfair evictions, and also changing housing tax concessions to limit investors buying up loads of properties that they might not be able to afford.
She added that even if renters were able to access landlords’ financial statements, trying to verify them could be an arduous process that might not be worth their time.
Get the latest Yahoo Finance news – follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.