- Jill Clark, 26, was asked to keep a bill in the owner’s name.
- She suspected he was trying to access the first home buyer grant.
- READ MORE: The rental crisis will get worse
A tenant looking for a rental property said she was turned down for a place because of a very suspicious request made by the landlord.
Jill Clark, 26, was struggling to find an apartment to rent in Sydney when a real estate agent offered her a lease with one condition: the electricity bill had to remain in the landlord’s name for the first six months of her tenancy.
The offer failed after Ms. Clark told the agent that such a request would be illegal, to which he replied that It was “what the owner wants.”
“The sad thing is that someone is desperate enough for a property to accept that without question and the real estate agents and the owners know that,” he said. news.com.au.
Ms Clark believed the landlord had been trying to take advantage of the first home buyer scheme.
The grant is available to first-time homebuyers purchasing a property for less than $1 million.
Applicants are only eligible if they intend to live in the property for the first 12 months.
Ms. Clark believed the landlord wanted to keep her name on the bill to make it look like they actually lived in the house and were not renting it.
Jill Clark, 26, turned down a lease offer after a real estate agent told her the electric bill had to be kept in the landlord’s name for the first six months.
The 26-year-old is a development manager and was working on a budget of up to $700 a week, but still struggled to find a home in the “tough” market.
Sydney currently has a vacancy rate of just 1.68 per cent and the average rent price in the city has skyrocketed to $600.
Ms Clark said that while some estate agents were “helpful”, the one who asked her to keep the electricity bill in the landlord’s name had been “incredibly frustrating”.
Ms Clark immediately suspected the estate agent’s request was an attempt by the landlord to access the first home buyer scheme while renting out the property.
The First Home Buyer Grant varies by state, but in New South Wales it can offer new homeowners a lump sum of $10,000 towards the purchase of their first property.
However, to be eligible, the buyer must live in the property for the first 12 months.
Ms Clark was told that in order to move into the house she would have to agree to have the landlord send her a bill.
In the end she rejected the offer and continued looking for a rental apartment under immense stress.
At her most terrifying moment, Ms Clark revealed she was just two weeks away from becoming homeless.
Despite working on a rental budget of $700 a week, Ms Clark still struggled to find a secure tenancy in Sydney (pictured), which has a vacancy rate of just 1.68 per cent (file image)
Her lease was about to end, she had no family in town to turn to if she needed a place to stay, and she had a pet, which made everything even more difficult.
“For those of us who don’t have the option of sleeping on a friend’s couch or moving back in with family, the thought of my lease ending before I find a new apartment is incredibly stressful,” she said.
Fortunately, Ms. Clark was offered a new lease at the last minute.
“But if I hadn’t been there, there wouldn’t have been any plan, honestly,” he said.