A landlord has been slammed after voicing his concern over new laws protecting tenants and ensuring rentals meet the basic standards of living.
The Victorian Labor government introduced the Consumer and Planning Legislation Amendment (Housing Statement Reform) Bill set to strengthen the rights of renters.
Premier Jacinta Allan and minister for consumer affairs Gabrielle Williams explained the bill would deliver a raft of sweeping reforms that crack down on rental providers and dodgy rentals.
Under the bill, rental providers and their agents could face fines of more than $11,000 for individuals and $59,000 for companies if the property they have rented does not meet minimum standards.
Ms Allan said too often tenants move into properties that still require urgent repairs or maintenance to comply with the minimum standards of a rental.
‘New tenants should be able to focus on where they put their couch, not worrying about if they need to go to VCAT because the mould in the bathroom that was supposed to be removed after the inspection is still there,’ Ms Allan said.
Rental activist Jordan van den Lamb, founder of the s***rentals.org website and known online as PurplePingers, mocked one landlord after he shared his concern.
The landlord claimed older properties would become too costly to repair if they were forced to meet minimum standards under the new laws.
The Victorian Labor Government has introduced sweeping new reforms cracking down on rental providers and dodgy rentals
‘Property managers would be required to audit all their properties,’ he posted on Facebook.
‘Holes in carpets, a gate not working, windows nailed shut and cracked concrete paths will all be utterly unacceptable.
‘Jacinta has introduced these laws to keep the trades in work. My concern is numerous older properties will simply become to costly to get up to standard.
‘Around suburbs like Colliingwood, Footscray and Dandenong, literally every second rental property will fail badly.
‘There would be another way of rental properties being sold.’
Mr van den Lamb shared a screenshot of the landlord’s post to his X account on Saturday, mocking him for his absurd complaints.
‘Next year we’ll have to make sure our investment properties comply with the law and that’s a bad thing,’ Mr van den Lamb wrote.
‘We’ll have to provide state of the art rentals with things like WINDOWS THAT AREN’T NAILED SHUT and if I have to do that I’m gonna sell my third investment property.’
Rental activist Jordan van den Lamb (pictured) mocked one landlord after he shared claimed it would be too costly to bring older properties up to minimum standards under the new reforms
Social media users also slammed the landlord with many claiming the minimum standard was an easily achievable goal to make something liveable.
‘If your property is not up to scratch, you can’t rent it out. Simple,’ one person commented.
‘Wow! Rentals that are code compliant?’ another person wrote.
‘An authority that ensures they are? Could it possibly be real? Is my open air and not fitting the frame front door code complaint?’
‘Human rights are quite a frightening concept to property investors,’ a third chimed.
A fourth added: ‘The minimum standard should be: if the landlord wouldn’t live in it for a year as it is, you can’t expect the tenant to’.
Under the new reforms landlords will face penalties if they withhold a tenants bond and fail to provide photographic evidence of damaged property along with a receipt outlining the cost of repairs.
Landlords will also lose the right to evict a tenant without a genuine reason and real estate agents will be banned from charging prospective tenants with the cost of conducting a background check on their rental history.
Hidden fees and charges which exist on third-party apps used by tenants to pay their rent will also be removed.
The cost of breaking a lease will also be capped, with renters paying one week’s rent for each remaining month of their contract – and only up to a maximum of four weeks.
The Victorian parliament is set to introduce the reforms in stages over the next 12 months, with legislation to ban unreasonable evictions coming into effect this year.
Landlords will still maintain the power to evict a tenant if they cause damage, fail to pay their rent or if the owner wants to move back into the property.
