Greens going to war with landlords?

Geez Shane, too much too soon, start off small.

Just pass the law which mandates ALL rental adverts must display a valid EER. Currently whole blocks of real estate rental adverts in the CT show “EER n/a.”

A nice second step is make it law that if I ask a real estate agent at a showing or call on the phone ” does this place have insulation in the roof?” to provide an answer. Not just shred my application because I ask too many questions.

The minimum security requirements will be a godsend. I had no idea until I rented in O’Connor that major insurers would not give you contents insurance in some postcodes if you didn’t have deadlocks on all doors and locks on all windows.

puzzlepunk said :

I cant see how this would actually make rents go up since it will a) only effect a small amount of rental properties and b) rental prices are set at whatever the highest price the Market will bare.

Agreed. It annoys me that landlords think that threatening to ‘pass on the costs’ to anyone that listens will have any effect. As we heard on the news this morning, Canberra has ridiculously high rents already, compared to other capital cities, so it’s pretty clear rental prices are set by the local market and not by what it actually costs the landlord to maintain the property. You don’t see rents going down when interest rates drop do you? And as Shane Rattenbury explained, the reductions in heating costs over Winter will more than make up for any small rent increases.

I think the Greens bill is a great initiative, long overdue, with little impact on property owners and huge gains for renters. It’s called regulation, and if you want to invest in a business or money making scheme in a civil society, whatever the sector, then you have to deal with the fact that you will face regulation.

I cant see how this would actually make rents go up since it will a) only effect a small amount of rental properties and b) rental prices are set at whatever the highest price the Market will bare.

And if it did have an effect on rental costs it would only be marginal. And I think we would see greater savings in other area’s

I had a dodgy rental in O’connor when I was a student and our bills in winter were around $800-900 for 3 months in Winter. And we were still cold, and often got sick! The place had windows that couldn’t be shut properly missing panes of glass, and no heating. We had mold on the kitchen ceilings, from what we found was a dead possum in the roof, the landlord refused to do anything about i. The toilet seemed to only work properly one or two days a week. We were paying $420 a month for this privilege and that was back in 2004.

Yet on leaving the property the landlord tried to slug us $ for putting “blue-tac” on some of the doors”

Rollersk8r said :

Can anyone tell me what the standards are, specifically what 3 stars is? I’ve googled the standards but all I could find was info about the assessment process.

This information should be linked form the press release on the Greens website. All I could find from google was links to expensive software for assessors to download. There should be an option on government websites for home owners to self-assess if this type of legislation becomes mandatory.

Can anyone tell me what the standards are, specifically what 3 stars is? I’ve googled the standards but all I could find was info about the assessment process.

Beau Locks said :

There’s nothing particularly radical about the Greens’ proposal. Landlords already pay a heap of dough in land tax etc, and most properties won’t need the $5k quoted in the Crimes today to get them up to spec. Another beat up instead of a constructive discussion about measures that could be taken to decrease living costs for renters. There are also a heap of different subsidies to green up properties. Perhaps this sort of legislation might go some way towards encouraging their take up in the private rental market.

Rubbish!!!! Try getting 0 rated properties, up to 3 stars and I bet it will be much more that $20,000

Holditz said :

I’d get some landlords to submit stories of dodgy tenants.

+1. There’s lots of focus on tenants’ rights (which is fair enough), but bugger all focus on tenants’ responsibilities.

My tenants have been generally OK, but even with careful vetting you still get the occasional troublemakers.

I’d get some landlords to submit stories of dodgy tenants.

There’s nothing particularly radical about the Greens’ proposal. Landlords already pay a heap of dough in land tax etc, and most properties won’t need the $5k quoted in the Crimes today to get them up to spec. Another beat up instead of a constructive discussion about measures that could be taken to decrease living costs for renters. There are also a heap of different subsidies to green up properties. Perhaps this sort of legislation might go some way towards encouraging their take up in the private rental market.

All the people currently in rentals will have to be kicked out while the upgrades take place then re rent the property at the increased rate.

If the greens want to subsidise it then sure why not.