Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
A suspicious rash led Brenda's rental to be decontaminated - the answer was inside the walls
Matt Gazy SBS (No paywall)Brenda was only five days into living in her new Gold Coast rental with her six dogs (yes, six) when something started to feel off. She said she started feeling itchy, developed a red rash and felt "dopey". She would soon discover her home was exposing her and her dogs to methamphetamine (meth). "I didn't know that meth affected people who never used it, or [about the] damage meth does to a house after [the people] left," Brenda said. Methamphetamine vapours can absorb into walls and furniture of a home — a 2023 Flinders University study found meth residue discovered in Queensland homes was detectable for months, and in some cases years, after production or use had stopped.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/brenda-developed-a-…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Security and safety.A Syd Man Claims He Was Evicted For Asking For A Rent Reduction After His Balcony Collapsed
Lavender Baj Pedestrian (No paywall)
A 35-year-old Sydney man has launched legal action against his landlord, claiming to be the victim of “retaliatory eviction” from his North Bondi apartment after asking for a rent reduction because *checks notes* his balcony collapsed. Pius Binder claims he was living at the North Bondi property for about four years before his balcony started coming away from the wall of their apartment block in October. “Two people were on it the night before and could have been harmed,” Binder said in the documents lodged with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. “Thankfully nothing happened.” After flagging the safety hazard with the real estate company Coastline Agency, he was asked to seek temporary immediate accommodation, which he claims took six weeks to be reimbursed for.
https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/retaliatory-eviction-north-bondi-…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Repairs, Security and safety.A ‘Fully Renovated’ $750 A Week Syd Rental Is Being Rightfully Torn To Shreds On Reddit
Rebekah Manibog Pedestrian (No paywall)For just $750 a week, you can rent this Auburn home, fitted with a toilet connected to a hose. Unfortunately, no toot paper is included. Ahh yes. Although it is a public holiday, there’s no rest in calling out the wicked. The wicked in this case are the shitty rentals that are continuously being put up on websites for ridiculous amounts of moolah. Our story takes place on r/shitrentals — a subreddit inspired by Jordan van den Berg‘s ‘Shit Rentals’ series — where a Redditor shared a listing that they described as “nightmare fuel”.
https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/redditors-slam-750-a-week-rental/
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Repairs.Far too many Britons are at the mercy of exploitative private landlords. I have a five-point plan to fix that
Stephen Cowan The Guardian (No paywall)Sarah faces daily torment. An impending rent rise means she can no longer afford to live in the home she shares with her two children. She has to downsize. That means potentially having to split up her boys. Her youngest is doing his A-levels. Her oldest, just turned 18, is struggling with mental health issues. It is an unenviable problem. “Will I have to say that one son lives elsewhere and one lives with me,” asks Sarah (not her real name). “At best I can try to protect them and say it’s all going to be OK. But I have to say it to myself as well. But we’ve got no stability and could be thrown out in two months’ time.” Sarah’s plight is a story of modern Britain. Where once we were a nation of homeowners and those who rented from their local council, we now live in a land where a staggering 11 million people live in privately rented homes.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/15/br…
# International, Rent.Evicted grandmother now sleeping rough in park
Eleanor Lawrie BBC (No paywall)When Heidi Dodson discovered she was going to be evicted, she reached out to her local council of Thurrock in Essex for help. But it rejected her application for priority housing and said she would cope if she ended up on the streets. Two weeks after being evicted, Heidi is homeless and sleeping in a park. Every evening Heidi Dodson reads her grandchildren a bedtime story and wishes them good night.
Then she quietly packs a rucksack with a torch, biscuits and some toilet roll, and makes a flask of tea, before making her way to a local park to spend the night. “You think about what you had - the safety of your own home, key, roof over your head,” Heidi says. “It’s these things that are going through your mind when you are out in the cold and sleeping on a park bench. The 57-year-old former shop assistant was recently served a section 21 “no-fault” eviction after seven years living in a private rented property she had secured through the council.
Landlord ordered to pay tenant $9k after failing to maintain rental property
Catherine Hutton NZ Herald (No paywall)A landlord who falsely claimed her property met Healthy Homes standards has been ordered to pay the tenant more than $9000. The tenant’s complaint to the Tenancy Tribunal featured a laundry list of problems that included the toilet cistern falling off the wall, unsafe electrical reticulation, a leaking shower, excessive mould because of poor ventilation, and floors that were so uneven they were dangerous. The recently released decision is scathing of the landlord, Xin Ji, stating “in the circumstances, I can only assume the landlord’s motivation to have been to avoid the cost of having those issues properly investigated and of any resulting remediation”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/landlord-ordered-to-pay-tenant-alm…
# Must read International, Rent, Repairs, Utilities water energy internet.Bailiff evictions of renting households at six-year high, says MoJ
Robert Booth The Guardian (No paywall)Bailiffs are evicting more renting households than at any time in the last six years, the Ministry of Justice has said, as protesters chanted for rent controls outside the HQ of Britain’s biggest listed private landlord. More than 100 members of the London Renters Union (LRU) set off red and blue smoke canisters as they descended on the glass and steel office of the property firm Grainger, which rents out more than 10,000 homes in the UK bringing in a 28% pretax profit margin on nearly £100m a year in rent. MoJ figures released on Thursday showed county court bailiffs evicted 2,682 households in England and Wales in the first three months of this year as a result of landlords issuing section 21 “no fault” eviction notices. This was the highest level since the start of 2017 despite the government first promising to end the practice in April 2019.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/bailiff-…
# Hot topic International, .New report for the Labour Party recommends vital changes to the private rented sector
Nationwide Foundation (No paywall)Last year, the Labour Party commissioned Stephen Cowan to review the private rented sector and recommend a framework for improving renters’ rights and raise standards. On Wednesday (15 May), this crucial independent report was published. The report sets out a vision for changes to the private rented sector, going beyond what is currently proposed in the Renters (Reform) Bill, and seeking to take a more holistic approach to addressing issues across the PRS. We met with Mr Cowan as he was preparing the report and shared a range of evidence from our funded partners. We’re pleased to see our insights and recommendations referenced throughout, as well as references to our funded projects, including our Affordable Housing Commission work, research completed by Julie Rugg, and the Renters Reform Coalition.
https://nationwidefoundation.org.uk/new-labour-report-recommends…
# Legal significance International, Rent.