TikToker Empowers Renters by Shedding Light on Black Mould and Exposed Asbestos

Documenting recurring black mold, exposed asbestos and perpetually ‘spongy’ carpets, content creator Jordie van den Berg has garnered millions of views exposing Australia’s worst rental properties on TikTok.

Known as @purplepingers on social media, the 27-year-old trained lawyer is now taking advantage of his viral momentum to launch a popular movement in the form of a review site: Shit Rentals.

Its goal is to hold real estate agents and landlords accountable. Through the site, tenants can anonymously submit detailed reviews of a property, complete with photos.

Mr. van den Berg then individually checks each submission before uploading it to a public spreadsheet that identifies the rental address and representing agency.

Two weeks after launching the website, Mr van den Berg manually verified more than 1,500 properties and agencies, with a much longer delay.

He told The Drum that the website exists to try to “address the power imbalance” between landlords and tenants.

“When you apply for a rental you give the real estate agent and the landlord so much information about yourself and you have no transparency about how that is going to be used and you also have no information about the place you’re going to be. the life or the experience you’re going to have,” he said.

Referring to comedian Tom Cashman – whose rental application was infamous after asking for a “landlord reference” – Mr van den Berg said that when tenants tried to hold agencies and landlords to account, they were “mocked” and punished for it.

“It’s about trying to give tenants more information for free and help them make a more informed decision about the current rent crisis we’re going through,” Mr van den Berg said.

A confirmation of crisis

August data from PropTrack report shows that the power gap between renters and landlords is only getting worse, with vacancy rates falling to a record low of 1.1 percent.

The vacancy rate is the percentage of all available units in a rental property that are vacant.

Census data indicates that 31 per cent of Australians rent their home. Mr van den Berg says the success of his website confirms a serious power imbalance between tenants and landlords.

“The turnout is absolutely phenomenal,” he said.

“If the question was, ‘Are crappy rentals a widespread problem?’ “The participation so far proves that yes, yes. We have a problem.”

Mr van den Berg said he was “annoyed” at feeling responsible for creating a database of bad rentals.

“The rent crisis has been a failure of successive governments for decades. It is not surprising that (the government) has not proposed a register,” he said.

Mr van den Berg said that given the tight rental market, the dynamic between tenants and landlords means tenants are even more vulnerable when reporting poor behavior from agencies and landlords.

“The government is relying on tenants to be their own letting agents,” he said.

“There’s such a power imbalance that if they do that (report problems) they get kicked out – that’s what I’ve seen.”

“The list looked good online”

Tenant Blake Hesketh invited Mr van den Berg to his home in Melbourne’s west after receiving an eviction notice following a dispute over the rent increase.

In a video shared on TikTok, he tours the property, highlighting the poor conditions.

“This shower won’t turn off,” he says in the video, adding, “The bathroom is covered in recurring black mold.”

Using a thermal camera, Mr van den Berg shows the extent of a leak which is damaging a carpet.

“Check out this beautiful native wildlife,” he says, examining the weed spores on the damp carpet.

Mr Hesketh told The Drum he had received a second eviction notice referencing the video, deeming the property unsafe to live in.

He said he had been a tenant at the property for seven years and problems with the accommodation were apparent when he moved in.

“The list looked good online, but when we got there it was the opposite,” Mr Hesketh said.

Mr Hesketh said he had to lay boards on wet carpet.

“We had to walk the boards just to take a shower and whatnot,” he said.

Mr Hesketh said that during his time living in the house the ownership changed three times.

“The house gradually got to a state where we said, ‘You need to be careful with your investment. We love this house as much as you guys and we’ve been here seven years and we’re part of the community, and you “I’m just letting this thing go to waste,” he said.

“It got to the point where the only thing we could do was contact a TikTok celebrity.

“They say tenants have rights, but these rights are never enforced.”

Keep your momentum

Mr Hesketh said he recently found new accommodation after submitting more than 50 rental applications. He welcomed Shit Rentals as an opportunity to “level the playing field” for renters.

“All the review sites are just doing a favor for owners and agencies,” he said.

“It’s nice to have a tenant-friendly review site.”

Mr Hesketh added that while the website gave tenants more information, it did little to address current vacancy issues.

“Right now, you can really only grab what you can,” he said.

“I just applied for over 50 houses and only got one.