You’ve heard me – tenants have rights too. There may not be enough rentals on the market and 50 people compete on every single house that is advertised, but that is not an excuse to let the landlords and the agents push you into the corner. Here is what you are entitled to (in Victoria):
They can’t reject you because of your kids
It is against the law to discriminate against tenants with kids. The only exceptions to this rule are:
- when if the property is unsafe for your little ones
- when the property is owned by government and is intended for childless people or
- when the property is place of residence of the landlord, who is temporarily renting it but will be returning
The bond
The bond can’t be higher than 1 month’s rent. If the landlord or the agent wants to get a higher bond, they have to go to VCAT (Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal) and get approval.
The only exceptions to this rule are
- when weekly rent is higher than $350 and
- when the house is landlord’s place of residence and the tenant will only live there until the landlord moves back in. There should be a clause in your tenancy agreement saying so.
In those two cases the bond is unlimited.
Another important thing to know is that the amount of the bond is only set once and can not be increased while you are renting.
What if they do demand a higher bond without any bases? You can complain to VCAT and they will be fined $500.
The rent
Rent is paid in advance, so the first question that rises – how much in advance?
If you pay on weekly bases – nobody can demand more than 2 weeks of rent in advance.
If you are not paying weekly and a week’s rent is less than $350 – only pay in advance for one month of rent.
If rent wasn’t paid on time
Even if you forgot to pay the rent and paid the next day or even next week – they can not throw you out. Only after 14 days of not paying the rent, agent/landlord has the right to give a tenant notice to vacate.
Ways of paying the rent
No matter how you pay, via direct debit, rent payment card or otherwise, they can not charge you for issuing a rent card or creating a direct debit agreement.
What if they do? Complain and they will get a $1000 fine.
Rent increase
If you have a fixed agreement – they simply can not increase rent. When you’re on periodic agreement, they can’t increase your rental payments unless there is a clause about it in your agreement. That clause should also say how much they can increase the rent.
You are completely safe in the first 6 months of tenancy and they can’t increase more than twice a year, 6 month between the increases. By law you must be notified 60 days before the increase in a written form.
Inspections
Neither the landlord nor the agent can come and inspect your rental during the first three months. After tat they can come once every 6 months and must give you at least 24 hours written notice. Also they can’t barge in on you any time – only between 8am and 6pm and never on public holidays.
Leaving your rental property
To leave a rental (in the middle or in the end of contract) all you have to do is to send a written notice to the agent by registered mail 28 days (at least) before the day you move.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
What if youve had a small accident in the litchen which has burnt the benchtop and the landlords insurere say they wont cover it and the strata management people say you have to pay for the full replacement of the bench after all the repairs have been done and you were advised by the property managers that everything was covered by insurance? We are looking ata bill for $3000 payable in 21 days for something we werent aware of?
Sorry to hear that, June, it doesn’t look good. By the law you’re responsible for all the damages to the property and will probably be required to pay for the repairs. Sometimes landlords have a clause in their insurance policy that covers accidental damage from tenants, but from what you’re saying it looks like your landlord doesn’t have that. Many policies cover the intentional damage, but not the accidental one. However you’re saying that they assured you that everything was covered and then suddenly said the opposite – if you’re in Victoria, try the Consumer Affairs help line (1300 55 81 81) or google “tenants right” and your state and you’ll find an appropriate authority in your state. They will at least tell you what your options are. Good luck, let me know how that went.
hi, we r breaking the lease due to change in job and we have contract of 12 mths in this house. Its just been 3 mths living here. Now until how long do we need to pay the rent? what if the agents don’t find new tenant. How long dowe have to bear the rent ? pls reply.
Thanks
Hi Monica, the laws may be slightly different in different states, where do you live?
I have been renting now for years, and have absolutly never had a problem. The first inspection i had in my current house, i got a letter thanking me for keeping it so good. I had an inspection about 3 weeks ago, with a new property manager. Today i got a letter stating that quote ‘ we advise that we require you to attend the following, few cobwebs to be removed, oven dirty, and ceiling fans dirty. ‘
My question to you is, is having an inspection meant to be a white glove test and do i have any rights here? Thankyou
There probably is a clause in your contract (many contracts have it) that says you have to keep the property “Reasonably clean”. Now the definition of “reasonably” varies from one property manager to another, obviously
But they can make your life pretty miserable when they begin issuing “fix this, fix that” notices and come to check you did it every two weeks.
hi there,
ok so my and partner and i have come to the end of our lease… we have currently been off a lease for the last 3 weeks with no contact from our landlord (private rental) . and now we have made a decesion to move are we able to just move out without the 28 days notice?? the landlord has actually only givin us a week to move which i dont mind. but all i want to know is that fair?
and when receiving your bond back do you get the 2 weeks in advance back aswell we are up to date on everything with no missed payments ??
thanks
Hi Jerika, the length of notice depends on the state where you live, are you in VIC?
Hi there,
my housemate and I have been renting a unit for the past year. Before we signed the least agreement, when we were inspecting the unit, we specifically asked the real estate agent about the maintenance of the driveway (shared by 3 units) and was told we do NOT need to worry about any gardening/maintenance in the driveway as it is under the body corp. During the first 3 mths of our stay we noticed that the weeds have overgrown into the driveway and requested maintenance by the landlord, which they have done and we were not asked to pay. During our 12 mth lease we’ve had multiple inspections and on each report we receive after it has always stated that maintenance of the driveway weeds is the responsibility of the landlord. However, few wks ago the driveway had weeding done again, and this time the real estate sent us a letter requesting that we pay half of the $320 bill of gardening of the driveway. We wrote back protesting this as we were clearly told that the driveway is not our responsibility but real estate still insisted that we pay. What are our rights? Thanks!
Hi Queenie, I guess your rights in regard to this are defined in the contract – what does your rental contract say about the gardening / maintenance fees? If it’s not defined, I would ring the Consumer Affairs of Victoria(if you’re in VIC) or the relevant organization in your state, to ask for advice. They most probably have dealt with many situations of the same kind, so they will be able to advise where the law stands in this regard.
I am renting a house in S.A. and the landlord has asked me to make rental payments by direct debit. I notice that the rental agreement states rent to paid on the Monday of each week by direct debit. I have lived here for over a year and always paid by cash deposit into the landlord’s bank account. Can he insist on a direct debit payment?
Hi Chris, Hopefully you are still monitoring this site and might have some insight on this issue! I have a strange issue but it has caused me to become quite peeved at general renting. Basically I live in an apartment building in Melbourne, and the other night we were on our balcony (26 stories up) and there was a bottle on the air condition unit that we had – and it got blown off by the wind – pure accident. Except that we now have a complaint against us saying that we ‘threw a bottle from our balcony’ and that we will have to pay for the body corporate charge for them to clean it up. The issue here is, that the bottle was never thrown, and the glass mostly remained behind our air condition unit as it fell behind it, and only a small amount of glass went to the connected balcony. A few questions, one – do complaints stick next to your name with the actual incident, as in I would like to dispute the fact that any bottle was ‘thrown’ . And – was the body corporate actually needed to come in to clean any other mess that occured and are we truly liable? Since it landed on our neighbours balcony as well, it seems a bit unfair that they would launch straight to a complaint without actually consulting us. I remember reading somewhere that the body corporate should try and instigate a discussion between quarrelling neighbours rather than having complaints lodged straight away, is this true? Where do you think I stand in this issue?
Thanks
I’m at my wits end now could you please offer some advice.
So I’ll list all the issues which the Real Estate Agents are already aware of and what has been actioned. Note that this is a brand new property that we moved into.
1. Oven wasn’t working for 2 weeks. The technician called us up we had to do the fidling around and eventually had to reset the master switch and put the oven on in a certain manner to get the thing started. Problem Solved.
2. Sensor light worked on the first day we moved in and was the only day that it worked. Have spoken the the Real Estate Agent and one of the maintenance crew were out today (2 months after the fact) and had a look at it. The bulb was fine but it seems that we have blown a fuse somewhere and the electrician has to come out now to have a look. Issue not resolved.
3. Heater not working. There is ducted heating through the whole house but the unit does not seem to be working at all. We have been up in the roof reset the whole thing as tole to over the phone by the company who installed it. We have had an air conditioning technician out to have a look and he couldn’t get it working. They have logged in a service call. The maintenance crew that were out today said it wasn’t the same one that they had installed. We have no idea what is going on with this heater. Issue not resolved and it’s been going on for 2 months.
4. The laundry. This was an absolute joke how it was missed. Firstly the water to the laundry sink was not connected. Secondly the S bend connecting the base of the sink to the drain was not installed. Finally the orientation of the sink was wrong. The space for the washing machine was directly in front of the door under the sink meaning once the machine was in the access would be blocked and the drainage hole for the washing machine in the sink was diagonally opposite to where the washing machine was. The water and the S bend were fixed up today. The sink orentation however has remained and we were told that they would have to return another time to rectify this.
5. The cables under the house apparently have been cut. So we have no phone and therefor can’t get internet. We have paid for the connection but apparently it’s up to the land lord or that’s what we have been told to have the cables fixed. Issue not resolved.
What can we do in this situtation?
It’s not like we can refuse to pay the rent can we?
Would we be able to ask for a decrease in the rent?
My partner and I have already taken a fair amout of time off work to have these issues sorted out. We don’t get paid for this.
Due to some of the issues we have had to use external places. eg laundry as we couldn’t use our washing machine, internet cafes and mobiles we don’t get reimbursed for this.
What rights do we have?
Please help
Good afternoon,
In Re: Accidental House Fire, qld
The property we rented at 2-3 months ago was subject to a house fire, where we lost everything. We had relatives visiting the day it happened. Our 3 year old nephew took hold of a lighter, went upstairs to our sons room and lit a mattress, by the time the smoke alarm had alerted me, we only had enough time to get the other occupants out. We alerted the Real Estate Agency most immediate, 2 days later we received a phone call from Our Property Manager who needed to arrange a meeting to see us asap. At the meeting we were informed that the Owners had actually taken possession from the Agency some time ago & that they are no longer manage the property, she then gave us a Cheque for the total amount of rent we had paid in advance (3months adv) as well as the Bond Release papers to get our bond money back. She then informed us that the owners still owed us an amount of $900+ for rent paid in adv to them. Our dilemna is; we don’t know where we stand legally, are we liable for damages? What do we do from here? We’ve made several calls to services in the hope that they would be able to shed light on our situation, but no success.
Hi,
I had a housemate that just gave me notice verbally (21/12/11). She moved in on the 28th February, 2011. Could you let me know which date she has paid up her rent? She wants to stay til the 31st December. I thought she has paid to the 28th December. I am in Victoria and she has only really given me 7 to 10 days notice. What do I owe her in the bond? Thanks
hi chris,
i have recently vacated a property, and was under the impression that when i signed the lease and paid the bond and the the first months rent in advanced that the first months rent would be used as the last months rent at the end of my lease, it is now at the end of my lease and the agent is expecting me to pay the final month rent, is this correct? do i have to pay the final month? if so.. whats the point in paying the month in advance?!
Hi Lisa,
It should be as simple as that: if you’ve lived 12 months in that rental house, you should pay for 12 months, not 13. The bond doesn’t count towards the rent, you pay it in the beginning of the tenancy and get it back at the end of the tenancy. Hope that helps.
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