Every other day for the last 30 years, I’ve heard horror stories from renters who’ve discovered they’ve signed a lease for a property that could kill them – black mould, rising damp, and, most recently, the realisation that their home was once used as a meth lab.
These are just the folks who are aware that their home is deadly. Many won’t know – but often, the agents or landlords who leased the house to them do. This is sickening.
It’s great to see the Victorian Government’s commitment to ensuring that home buyers aren’t misled about existing health and safety issues, but as a renters’ advocate, I wonder: Why doesn’t this vital protection extend to renters? After all, with house prices through the roof – just under one-third of the state’s population is now renting, and that rate is growing. Fast.
Currently, there is no basic obligation for landlords to ensure or disclose any information about the fitness of a rented house. This needs to change.
Today, the Victorian Lower House is voting on whether to include pre-contractual disclosure in the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill. We are desperately hoping that it will pass, and that it will sail through the Upper House so that renters get the protections they deserve.
We cannot ignore the wellbeing of one-third of the population for the sake of securing an investment.
Mould issues are often exacerbated by flat dismissal of reports, and landlords who opt for quick fixes that do nothing to fix the underlying problem causing the mould. As a result, multiple generations of tenants are repeatedly exposed to deadly harm.
The dangers of exposure to asbestos fibres are well known, yet we continue to hear from renters who only find out that their house is contaminated when something goes wrong or when a tradesperson lets it slip. To add insult to injury, these renters usually end up losing personal possessions contaminated by asbestos and have little hope of claiming adequate compensation for the loss.
We have also seen a number of deaths caused by faulty and poorly maintained gas heaters and pool fences.
In many of these cases, the landlord or estate agent knew about the problems but simply didn’t tell the tenant because they knew that information would make the tenant reconsider.
There is no good reason why landlords and property managers shouldn’t be required to disclose potential health and safety issues to renters before they sign on the dotted line. With more people renting for longer into their lives than ever before, we cannot ignore the wellbeing of one-third of the population for the sake of securing an investment.
Hear more from Mr O'Brien:
CEO of Tenants Victoria, Mark O'Brien, speaking with Jan Fran and Michael Hing.
