highlights an overlooked feature of Australia’s rental crisis: its physical and psychological impacts on tenants.
I mean this is something literally every tenant has been saying over and over and over again but i guess it’s not a concept until the Lords and Masters deign to notice it.
Our previous landlord has 10+ properties and owns a building company; far as I can tell he targets dilapidated old houses on oversized plots of land, knocks 'em down and barfs up cardboard duplex new builds in their place. They look great - aircon, high ceilings, stone countertops, fancy appliances, etc. - but everything behind that is as shoddy as he can get away with and then some. Rain flooding THROUGH the walls, black mould, unsealed window frames, creaking floors, unlockable doors, dead outlets… Getting anything fixed was like pulling teeth, and literally all he cared about was maximum immediate profit with as little effort as possible.
The biggest favour that parasite ever did for us was jacking up the rent enough to force us out, because we only discovered the rampant black mould problem while we were packing up. Bullet narrowly dodged, and I learned a bunch of super valuable red flags to look out for (and under, and behind) next time.
By contrast, our current landlord is an absolute legend and the best I’ve ever encountered. He has a day-job in Defense so not a hardcore investor, and this was his family home before we became the first tenants to live here. The place is solid brick and built to owner-occupier standards, his parents are our neighbours, we chat over the fence whenever he’s over there for a bbq, RE is super chill, and repairs generally take a few days at most. We know how lucky we are, but I really wish this was the norm, not the exception.
When landlords have no stake in the property beyond collecting rent, of course this will happen. They’ll do the bare minimum to keep tenants paying while letting their properties fall apart
I don’t think I’ve ever rented a property that didn’t have a problem with mould or shitty insulation.