In Australia, you'd be one in a million to go through life without at least one nightmare rental experience — whether it's shit housemates, mouldy bedrooms, structural collapses or lying landlords taking every last cent outta your pockets.
1. "Slumlord approached me one day and asked that if the Council comes knocking, to tell them I pay rent to someone else. A flatmate did a quick Google and found out that the landlord had been barred from renting property as he'd built extra rooms to cram in more people and did the electrical work himself, resulting in a fire that seriously injured one girl."
"I had noticed there were random bits of wood and sharp metal nail-gunned to the walls around the place; obviously he was trying out his renovation toys on bits of scrap. I was lying in bed one day and noticed that a few seemingly random vertical lines carved into the window frame above actually spelt 'FUCK [Landlord's Name]' when viewed from a low angle. The saddest thing was this room cost a fortune. So Sydney."
—u/Mazango66
2. "Sewage dripping into my flat from the one above. The landlord was in breach of the Resi act for 1430 days and I had to live in this shit. Compensation was paid twice and repairs were completed after 10 court appearances. I live in a purpose-built facility for the disabled and the Dept of Health and Human Services are yet to apologise."
Came home tonight & realized there is a massive hole in the wall behind the washing machine & the wall is all rotted out! Sounds like there is a leak in the wall & oh… I can smell sewage! And my landlord is acting like they had no idea! Puh-leeze! Seriously what do I do?!? 😩🤮
3. "I had a landlord try to blame me for the foundation of the house failing and the fact the entire house was splitting in half."
4. "I fell through the floor in the kitchen. Just walked over it and fell through it. The landlord's advice was to fix it and he would credit us to rent payments. Called REA, she accused us of damaging the property somehow. No one asked if any of us were hurt."
—u/permacolour
5. "I run an end-of-lease cleaning agency and the amount of times agents have tried to rip off our clients is outstanding. We cleaned the house top to bottom and took pictures, the agency then hired a bond inspection company (which shares the same ABN as the owner of the agency in question). The agent reported that no areas had been cleaned, took keys, didn't allow us to re-enter for a re-clean. Then charged our customer another $350 for cleaning we'd already done."
—u/[deleted]
Yes inspection with landlord great This is what we need right now Why the f*ck are landlords so worthless why the hell you regulating what the f*ck fish tank I want in my house after I pay like 300 dollars to have the damn fish did I mention tgis is a disabled and 60+ place
6. "I used to live in a share house with the landlord and other renters. The landlord let his two-year-old daughter piss in the kitchen sink. He also had an eight year old who would bounce a basketball in the house at 7am when I was trying to sleep (I worked the night shift). I asked him to tell his kid to stop, but he said 'it's 7am you should be awake'."
—u/FireGolem1
7. "We moved to the country, lovely property on five acres, with a large shed down the back. We were told the landlord spent the occasional weekend there in the shed, just a few times a year. Well, he was there every damn weekend and often during the week too — and you can imagine the rest. He was not a nice guy and it was hell living with him there all the time. Found out later that he'd antagonised and driven away all his previous tenants too. Yet the scummy agent was still willing to lie to prospective tenants about him only being there a few times a year."
8. "The mushroom growing from the mould in the shower was the final straw."
—u/Dmaharg
These are some pics from my bedroom. I have #lupus and have respiratory problems. I have been pressing my landlord about the damp and mould issues in my house for over 3 months now and I don't know what else to do. If you know anyone with knowledge of housing law PLEASE DM me.
9. "One place we rented had constant trouble with the pipes due to tree roots. Over the Easter weekend, the toilet and drain overflowed; literally shit all over the floor. Called the real estate’s emergency number, she couldn’t get hold of the owner and refused to let us call an emergency plumber. Until I called her with the specific clause identifying emergency repairs. I reported her for that."
10. "I had a landlord routinely appear when I got home from work to watch from across the road or beside the gate while I got changed or hung out in the backyard sunbathing. When I confronted him (and he was a solid four inches shorter than me), he felt emasculated so much so that he took me to VCAT and I still won."
11. "The short version is we have NEVER rented a place for more than two years. We’ve had issues with cockroaches, useless agents who I had to send highlighted excerpts from tenancy laws multiple times to defend ourselves against illegal measures, rent increases without notice, rent increases above market value, refusal to do repairs, threatening us in writing with eviction if we went to fair trading to make them do said repairs, trying to force professional cleaning at end of lease. The worst was when we didn’t know that the real estate agent was married to the landlord (so legally co-owner). We found out when they got divorced and the landlord got the property."
—u/pogoBear
Tbt my landlord “fixed” my sewage pipe with painters tape
12. "I had surgery and ended up getting re-admitted to hospital. I was discharged home on the Friday — this same week, we found out that the landlord wanted to sell. I got harassing phone calls all week and when I was trying to recover as they wanted to host an open house on the Saturday. And how dare I stand in the way of the owner trying to sell!"
"We got kicked out of the house with two weeks to find a new place. While I’m recovering from surgery. Jokes on them, it was overpriced and they couldn’t sell or rent it for the next eight months. We would have happily stayed there if they just left us alone."
13. "Had an inspection, just a general house inspection. The real estate agent pulls out a white cotton glove and rubs it at the back of a cupboard, I chuckle thinking they are joking, and mention how only some sort of supervillain does that sort of thing. Nope, they were not joking, I got a breach notice for the house being dirty and for the garage having too many cardboard boxes in it. The lease was six months, so half my stuff was still packed away. Surprise, surprise, I had to move six months later."
—u/fued
gonna make sure my landlord is subjected to our shower curtain when he comes over for inspection today
14. "My daughter's friend just turned 18 and lived with her single parent father. Her father died in his sleep and she was the one to find him. Two days later, the owner of the house came over SCREAMING at her telling her she had no right to be there now the lease holder was dead and she had to leave immediately and he was getting someone to come throw everything out on the verge."
"This old man screaming at a grieving child and threatening her with homelessness and losing everything two days after the loss of her father. I found out later the man is a multi-millionaire who owns a steel company. The house was in slum conditions, falling apart and this multi-millionaire was a literal slumlord. Strangely, in this story, the real estate were the good guys and gave her time to sort everything and move out properly, but the trauma will always be there for her."
15. "Rented a place for 15 months, had two separate instances of black mould in the unit — one from sewerage leakage and one from a leak and heavy rain. Took a combined seven months to have the mould removed and issues fixed. Now, our landlord is refusing compensation despite us being unable to use one of two rooms for three months because of this."
—u/ARealShark
In today's episode of landlord nonsense: Tenant had been complaining about dampness for three (3) years, landlord repeatedly dismissed as 'aesthetic'. Finally got someone round to look at it, and they'd been sleeping under black mould this whole time:
16. And finally: "I moved out of a place, left it spotless and always paid my rent on time. Just before moving out, my car broke down. I didn’t know what was wrong with it, and with all the stress of moving and cleaning, I decided to get into my new place first before dealing with the car. I moved out of and cleaned the old place a couple of days earlier than my lease legally ended, and contacted the landlord to say I was out and where I left the keys, and that I’d be back to get my car tomorrow with a trailer to tow it. I hired the trailer and went back before lunch the next day and the car was gone."
"I called the landlord, he said he had it taken away for scrap because I left it on his property after vacating. I couldn’t fucking believe it. A $10,000 car just gone. Keeping in mind I legally was still the tenant at the time. When I called him out on this, he suddenly had a list of supposed problems I had to pay for and said I wouldn’t be getting my bond back. Well, I ended up reporting it to the police AND going to the tribunal over the bond. I got threatening emails and texts from him constantly, and ended up going to the police about that too."
—u/stefatr0n
Have you got a wild rental story up your sleeve? Tell us in the comments below!
Note: Some Reddit responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.