Life as a Renter

Endless Instability

On Monday last week, I received an email to inform me that my lease would not be renewed for another period.

This isn’t exactly a surprise, we have had a tenacious relationship at best with this agency after they declared they were non-negotiable to the RTA about giving us reasonable payment methods to pay rent.

Regardless, it was a shock to my system.

We have 2 months.

I have lived in rental homes all my life, and I’ve always dreamed of owning my own place.

But, after this move, I will have moved house 12 times.

Renting is the area of life I feel the most hopelessness with.

At a whim you can lose your home, your shelter, your routine.

Every time you move you spend excessive amounts of money.

Money on bond cleaners, money on removalists, on boxes and supplies, on getting to inspections and back, on bond and deposits.

And every single time I use so much energy I end up needing months to recover.

There is so much fear that comes up when you’re told you have to leave.

Fear of making it out by the due date.

Fear of finding a place that will work for your needs.

Fear of plans falling through.

You’re forced to rely on your current agency coming through for any references that your prospective rental agency requires, and if they don’t follow up, you may not get the place you applied for.

Renting is a curse that people too poor to afford a house EVER are forced to suffer through.

I’ve been speaking with some newer friends these days, and I’m surprised to find that they don’t know much about the rental sphere right now.

Some are home owners, others live with parents, or some have financial assistance from family to pay off mortgages.

But many of them don’t know; the process for renting, the cost of renting and the emotional burden of renting.

The Process of Renting

I’m gonna break it apart by dissecting my moving experiences this year.

The last place I lived we had to leave because of a price rise we were asked to accept with the new lease, we were told if we could not pay the new rent amount we would have to leave.

A friend also needed to finish up his lease, so we decide to look for places to live together.

I was looking at properties as early as November 2023, and it took until January 20th for us to find a place that accepted our application.

We were turned down from 3 places, and others were snatched up faster than I could inspect them.

I had to make sure we moved in at a time we could afford while still giving ourselves enough time at the old place to vacate and clean up.

This is extremely difficult to manage, either the prospective agency has to be ok with you taking your time moving in, or you end up doubling up on the rent you’re paying.

The application forms are always difficult to fill out, especially if you have multiple tenants.

Some applications want everything and anything about you on the page, including the addresses of references (this was one I encountered this year). Others are more simple and reasonable, but usually all of them require a long list of past rental experiences.

It feels like a job interview, but worse.

You have to prove you’re the most worthy for the shelter.

So, we found a place, we packed up our house, and we began moving in.

I get the keys and the entry report and I make my way over.

When you rent a place, you must accept it in “as is” condition, which is very rude when a 5 minute house inspection doesn’t exactly lend you to know what is wrong with the place.

You have to fill out the entry report when you get the keys to prove what state the place was in at the beginning of the tenancy.

In other words, it’s the opportunity for you to document everything wrong with the place so they don’t claim you did all the damage and attempt to steal your bond.

Before I got the keys, their agency also had to do an entry report, take photos, and then provide a space for me to write my own observations.

When I turned up at the place, it was my intention to complete the entry report as soon as possible. So as soon as I got there I started taking photos and writing notes on my laptop.

I get inside, and immediately I am faced with some kind of creatures poop, and it was EVERYWHERE on the bottom floor.

I look at the entry report, and everything is marked as being “Clean, working, and undamaged”.

Originally I hoped it was just old, maybe there was a pest and it had died.

But then the next morning, more poop, fresh poop.

Disgusted and infuriated by their blatant lies I emailed them and immediately requested a pest treatment.

But it was all messed up already, the bottom floor was filthy, all our stuff was meant to go down here for sorting, and I couldn’t believe it was this gross going in.

They assured me it wasn’t like that during their entry report, but I maintain, what’s the point of an entry report if you do it before we even inspected the place.

One of the poop stains was there when we first inspected, I assumed that just meant the bond clean had not been done. I was wrong.

So, a filthy house, moving truck booked the next morning, and I still have an entry report to complete.

Because we were low on money to begin with, we only hired movers for the furniture and decided to do everything else driving back and forth in our car. So I attempted to do the entry room by room, according to what had to go where.

This took an agonisingly long time.

You only have 4 days to return the entry report once you’re given it, after that, what ever the agent says sticks.

To make things even more difficult, the form they give you is usually a hard copy, with about a sentence worth of space next to each item, and no ability to attach your own photos.

In order to accurately document the entry report, I have to make a whole separate document with tables so that I have enough space to dictate.

If you don’t document it all, they will come for your bond.

Then, they won’t fix anything, they’ll put new tenants in, and they’ll do the exact same thing all over again.

Its truly despicable.

After all this, we still had to clear out of the old place.

That meant doing an exit report.

This also took forever, we were scammed by our bond cleaners who posed as a professional company but who were actually just a family with 3 tiny children running around our ex property and screaming the whole time.

When our old agents tried to contact them for a return clean, they insisted on every number that they did not speak English, and the emails they provided weren’t real.

Life Tip: Don’t hire any cleaners that don’t have public google reviews.

We ended up having to pay out of pocket for a cleaner to come back, but luckily we were able to communicate this transaction without it coming out of our bond.  

Speaking of bond.

We would not be getting our bond in time for the new place, this meant I had to fill out a bond loan.

Which meant the whole house had to participate, we all had to be on the bond loan.

Another crazy invasive application that a considerable amount of people would find inaccessable had they just moved in with new people or were looking at going to a share house for the first time. They needed me to supply peoples birth certificates, their bank statements, proof of income, and all of it had to be through me as the one organizing the bond loan, we could not share access to the bond loan application.

So the bond for our current property is through a bond loan, and because of lousy communication from them about the conditions, we found out none of us have been paying it off this whole time.

Yay!

Now, we’re facing not having bond money, and not having a paid off our bond loan, and we actually have no idea what we’re going to do about our bond for the next place.

I’m not sure what options we have, its scary.

We finally finished all of this nonsense by March.

Finally over.

And yet, we had not unpacked, I had managed to pull a muscle and could barely walk, and I’ve had issues with my ankles ever since.

We started proper unpacking in June when one of my housemates had time off work, but we did not get through the slog.

I had almost finished up a month ago, then I got terribly sick and couldn’t put any time towards it.

Now, I have to pack it all up again.

Christmas is going to be spent inspecting houses, staying up to date on real estate.com, and sitting with that churning anxiety that things could get very dire very soon.

The Cost of Renting

The first three properties I rented in Brisbane were between $375 and $420 a week, this was between 2017 and 2023.

First place was a three bedroom townhouse for $400.

Second place was a 3 bedroom house next to a train station with a sunroom in the back for $380.

Third place was an apartment unit, 2 bedroom combined living and kitchen for $375, up to $420 the following year, when they requested a rise to $500 we moved.

The three bedroom one bathroom home we are in now is $675 per week, plus fees.

I checked the first property I ever rented in Brisbane, and it is currently going for $800.

What was $400 in 2019, is now $800 in 2024.

That’s unacceptable.

Now, if we want a 3 bedroom house within 30 minutes of the city where my housemates work, we have to accept a minimum rent cost of about $750. I have seen maybe 2 properties available under that amount.

I’m seeing places at $850 per week that have no air conditioning, a combined toilet bathroom, and 2 bedrooms without so much as a ceiling fan.

That’s unacceptable.

If I was to rent alone, in a studio without a garage or car space, $500 a week.

How the fuck is anyone meant to afford this shit.

I’m seeing places that don’t deserve $400 a week let alone $800.

We used to pay $400 for this. Now we’re paying infinitely increasing numbers.

Then, the bond is 4 weeks rent, then, the deposit is 2 weeks rent.

No one ever gets their bond back before securing and moving to a new place, because the bond is in question until the agents approve of its release.

So only people who can afford a hotel and a storage locker can afford to “wait” for their bond to come in. At that wealth point, they would just be able to pay the bond upfront without needing it back in time.

Then you gotta pay for your cleaners, if you don’t have a bond cleaner the chances of your agent accepting the clean is very low. The bond cleaner typically offers a buffer between you and the agency as well, usually offering a return clean if items aren’t cleaned appropriately.

But the cost? Expect about $150 per room, and that’s just for basics.

The numbers are crushing.

The Emotional Burden

All we want is to rent peacefully and reasonably.

And almost every time I rent a new place, I discover a new trick agents will play.

When we applied for this place and met up to sign the lease, we were informed that the best method to pay rent was through rent card or “Rental Rewards”.

We didn’t know it at the time, but this third party payment company was a complete scam.

I would pay rent on time, and it would mark me as having not paid rent on time, it would charge me random fees and one time it kept my rent money and told me I still had not paid rent.

We ended up insisting on changing this payment method, but they refused a method that didn’t incur fees.

There was a law change regarding this from the 30th September 2024, once this date passed, we initiated another conversation with them about changing our payment methods.

They told us they were RTA compliant and that they would not be offering any different kind of payment method.

We ended up initiating the RTA, and after weeks of waiting were told that, because the agency is non-negotiable, we would have to take it to QCAT and it would likely be a 7-9 month wait. This would take us well past our lease end, and we feared jeopardizing the lease any further.

Now, I am certain they are doing this because of our refusal to gracefully pay extra money to pay rent.

In a way, I’m relieved its ending, that I don’t have to put up with the extra costs and their constant bullying will finally come to an end.

But mostly, I’m exhausted.

I didn’t bother growing attached to this place once we had difficulty getting them to assist us.

I knew that was the red flag not to get comfortable.

And yet it does not stop me from feeling this emptiness that I have to say goodbye once again to a space I made my home.

As a renter, you’re not allowed to be comfortable.

This place isn’t yours. And your home is always welcome to invaders determined by the agency, constantly at the disregard for your privacy and quality of life.

You’re not allowed to paint the walls, you can’t repair anything without permission, you can’t hang art and most agencies don’t even let you put up blutac or removable hooks.

No matter how settled you become, this place is not your own, and it could be gone in a matter of emails and notices.

When I move, do I even bother unpacking? Will I get to live anywhere for longer than a year without a steep rent rise or an owner deciding to sell?

How am I supposed to afford it year after year?

I can’t truly relax as a renter, I’m starting to resent my belongings for being a financial burden to cart around, and my art is so weathered by blutac marks I may as well retire them.

Will I ever get free of the cycle?

When I was a kid, I went to the houses of my friends.

The owned, warm, individualized houses.

Where posters layered the walls of their children’s walls, hand carvings and doodles marking the room as their own.

Where a stain on a carpet is just a nuisance, something to clean up.

Instead of the potential loss of your money and livelihood.

One time, after visiting one of my friends houses, I found some blutac and stuck a laminated painting I made in school on the wall of my bedroom.

Next to it, in pencil, I wrote “Shannon was here”.

It was in this area right by my bunk bed, so I could see it when I got inside.

My mum found it one day when she was tidying, and she flipped out at me.

“You cannot write on the walls what were you thinking??!”

“Phebe and Zarah write on their walls.”

“That’s because they own their house and their mum is ok with that. You can’t do this here! We don’t own this place, and when we have to leave we will have to pay for any damages.”

She said, furiously scrubbing the wall.

Any spill, any chip, anything, and my mum would panic.

And for good reason.

She took photos of that place before we moved in, we had leased it from a friend who was also an agent. When we left, she claimed we had totally destroyed the area of carpet near the sliding door that lead outside.

It was like that when we moved in.

She tried to take our entire bond. A family friend.

It happened again at our next place, which had previously been a meth den and underwent no repairs, not even a proper clean, before we moved in.

Imagine trying that with a disabled, single mother, and her daughter.

This is a public outcry.

Why do we treat renters like criminals, parasites, scum.

Renters are the only reason these landlords get to sit on a generating money pile.

Renters are the only reason people who decide to buy one house to rent out so they can buy a second house, can exist.

Its absurd capitalism.

It’s a poison on our quality of life.

It’s a barrier to ever becoming a home owner, when some people own up to 3 properties, and even that is not enough for them.

I used to think that Australia looked out for its little people.

But I’m losing faith fast.

Soon the barrier to entry will be as high as $1000 a week for the bare minimum.

I could never have imagined looking for places as high as $900.

That’s what functional, clean, and undamaged costs now.

Otherwise, we sign up to a place covered in grime, a place with barely a functional bathroom, a place with no air conditioning in an Australia experiencing record high heats for longer.

We sign up to a place that will without a doubt try to take our bond, claiming what ever damage and grime present was all inflicted during our tenancy.

I’ve been down this road before.

The easiest move I ever had was in the most expensive place I lived, which started out at $375 and ended at $420 per week. It was a simple, modern unit with clean walls and new carpet.

It was easy to determine what damage pre existed and what was on us.

There was no argument about the state of the property, and we paid privately for what ever needed to be done. It cost us about $300 all up, and it didn’t come out of our bond.

The places we’ve lived that were old, decrepit and filthy, all pretended the place was in immaculate condition.

As did the agent for the place we are vacating now.

I guarantee they will claim countless damages and cleaning issues that I will have to take them to court for.

They always do.

I’m sick of living like this, and until I somehow make a fortune off my art, it will be my life.

I try to embody my freedoms to the fullest, and try not to dwell on that which I cannot control.

I make my rentals into homes, I try my best to peacefully live and exist without fear and anxiety.

But its hard when you feel like an entire system, regardless if you follow the law and do everything right, just wants to bleed you dry.

If anyone out there can do something, even if you’re a homeowner that insists their agent doesn’t push a rent rise for your tenant, please, do something. Say something.

Because no one cares about the voices of renters.