A landlord has come under fire after raising concerns about new laws protecting tenants and ensuring rentals meet basic living standards.
The Victorian Labor Government introduced the Planning and Consumer Legislation Amendment (Housing Declaration Reform) Bill aimed at strengthening tenants’ rights.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Consumer Affairs Minister Gabrielle Williams explained that the bill would bring about a series of sweeping reforms that will crack down on rental providers and dodgy rentals.
Under the bill, rental providers and their agents could face fines of more than $11,000 for individuals and $59,000 for businesses if the property they have rented does not meet minimum standards.
Allan said too often tenants move into properties that still require urgent repairs or maintenance to meet the minimum standards of a rental.
“New tenants should be able to focus on where they put their sofa, without worrying about whether they need to go to VCAT because the mold in the bathroom that was supposed to be removed after the inspection is still there,” Ms Allan said.
Rental activist Jordan van den Lamb, founder of the website s***rentals.org and known online as PurplePingers, mocked a landlord after he shared his concerns.
The owner claimed that older properties would be too expensive to repair if they were forced to meet the minimum standards set by the new laws.
The Victorian Labor government has introduced sweeping new reforms to crack down on rental providers and dodgy rentals.
“Property managers would have to audit all their properties,” he posted on Facebook.
‘Holes in carpets, a non-working door, nailed shut windows and cracked concrete paths will be absolutely unacceptable.
‘Jacinta has introduced these laws to keep the trades running. My concern is that many older properties will simply be too expensive to maintain up to par.
‘In suburbs like Colliingwood, Footscray and Dandenong, literally one in two rental properties will fail badly.
“There would be another way to sell rental properties.”
Van den Lamb shared a screenshot of the owner’s post on his X account on Saturday, mocking him for his absurd complaints.
“Next year we will have to make sure our investment properties comply with the law and that is bad,” Van den Lamb wrote.
“We will have to offer state-of-the-art rentals with things like WINDOWS THAT ARE NOT NAILED CLOSED and if I have to do that, I will sell my third investment property.”
Rental campaigner Jordan van den Lamb (pictured) mocked a landlord after he claimed it would be too expensive to bring older properties up to minimum standards under the new renovations.
Social media users also criticized the owner, with many stating that the minimum standard was an easily achievable goal to make something habitable.
‘If your property isn’t up to par, you can’t rent it out. Simple,’ one person commented.
‘Wow! Code Compliant Rentals? another person wrote.
‘An authority that guarantees that this is the case? Could it be real? Is my complaint about the open air entry door code and it not fitting into the frame?
“Human rights are a pretty scary concept for real estate investors,” chimed in a third.
A fourth added: “The minimum standard should be: if the landlord doesn’t want to live in it for a year as is, the tenant can’t be expected to.”
Under the new reforms, landlords will face penalties if they withhold a tenant bond and fail to provide photographic evidence of the damaged property along with a receipt outlining the cost of repairs.
Landlords will also lose the right to evict a tenant without a genuine reason and real estate agents will be prohibited from charging prospective tenants the cost of conducting a background check on their rental history.
Hidden fees and charges that exist on third-party apps used by tenants to pay rent will also be eliminated.
The cost of breaking a lease will also be capped: tenants will pay one week’s rent for each remaining month of their lease, and only up to a maximum of four weeks.
The Victorian parliament is set to introduce the reforms in stages over the next 12 months, with legislation to ban unreasonable evictions coming into force this year.
Landlords will still retain the power to evict a tenant if they cause damage, fail to pay rent, or if the landlord wants to return to the property.