r/AusRenters

Hi all,

Our landlord wants to sell the house and we got a notice to vacate in 2 months because of a buyer. The buyer backed out but they don't want to revoke the note and we have now 2 months to find a new home still.

We are worried to not find anything because we have two cats. We are great tenants with high income and no children and we have been praised so far for how well we treat the property we are in. Should we just lie about our cats and tell them one month in that we adopted some?

Thank you folks for sharing the 60 days notice period.

I told the landlord and he was unaware of it.

The landlord proposed increase rent but wants to give 6 months lease with new rent on it. I denied. I asked him to provide written notice first and then give new contract based on new rate. Landlord kept referring the new RBA interest rates and keeps on speculating the new inflation rate will be 10% and will review in the rent in 6 months. How do we navigate this RBA and rent thing?

I am seeking to make the agreement for 1 year.

Rent got shitty in Sydney.

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AusRenters/s/DhNm3QtPtf

Just received an email a couple of minutes ago and yes! We got our bond back.

It took almost 4 months for us to receive a determination of our bond dispute and phew, I’m just glad that it’s over! You won’t receive any updates until they make a decision and then both parties are given a week to dispute the decision made.

For anyone that’s curious - Basically we were told by the REA that we owed them rent up to the day the owners had decided that they’d like to move in. We provided evidence that this decision was made because we chose to move out only and that we had done our due diligence to find suitable tenants in the form of screenshots on Facebook of conversations and posts we had made. We also included all correspondence between us and the REA (or lack of) to show that we weren’t really being kept in the loop properly either.

Factors influencing their decision in our favour included:

- low rental vacancy rates and high demand for rentals in our area. As properties in our area were often taken within 1-2 weeks from the date they were advertised on, we had provided the REA with a suitable timeframe for finding a new tenant / mitigating loss

- the owners did not provide any supporting evidence to explain the delay in their decision to move in and that it was not communicated to us

- the owners did not provide sufficient evidence to show that they were mitigating rental loss as well

Happy to share more details if anyone’s curious. Thanks again to everyone who responded to my original post too!

As the title describes, I had a routine inspection scheduled a couple of weeks ago, cleaned the entire place, scheduled to WFH that day and they didn’t show up or rescheduled it. I called them and they let me know the person responsible for it had resigned and asked me if I could that the photos for them (don’t they get paid for this?), to which I said I couldn’t because I was going away for the weekend.
Now I got an email notification of a new inspection in 14 days.
What are my rights here? Can I refuse on the basis of not wanting to clean the entire place again? I don’t want to come off as difficult, just want to be fair.

Hi,
I rent a 2bhk 80s block in Sydney with my husband. Rent is very cheap and we love the place. Been here 4 years. This is the first time any of this has happened.

Since the beginning of this year I’ve accommodated 7 separate inspections from 4 different groups of service providers. REA and strata included.

Whatever is booked by the REA is fine and they communicate well in advance but early this year a random guy knocked and said he’s here to check the smoke alarms. He was standing inside the doorway (fly screen open and one foot in the door) I told him i have no communication and I can’t leg him in because it was 7:30am on a weekday and i had to leave for work. While getting ready I could hear him going around the block, went around to all the other units and did their inspections. I rang my neighbour and he said It was for smoke alarms apparently. I told if he wants to do it quickly I’m happy to oblige as I’m late for work. He abused me further by saying that now I’m scared and worried because I found out that this is a mandatory inspected. chucked a tantrum and did it anyway.

7 weeks later another bloke shows up, 6:53am this time. Knocks away aggressively. I went out in a towel because i was in the shower. He said he is here to do an inspection. I said I’m sorry i have no communication and i cannot allow him inside. I was half naked and needed to leave for work. He said “no dramas love, I’ll put you down as access denied”.

Today, (few months later) another guy bangs on my door aggressively at 7:30am. I didn’t even open it.

I’ve written to the REA twice and she always apologises regarding the miscommunication and says she’s received no information about this and is sorry for the inconvenience.

But that doesn’t solve the problem of strange men rocking up to my house at fkn 7am on random weekdays and demanding access to check smoke alarms.

How many inspections in 1 year are reasonable? Strata and REA included.

EDIT:

The 7 inspections/ visits I’ve previously accommodated from Jan 2026- Oct 2026 were partly from REA and rest from strata:

1. routine rental inspection by prop manager x2
2. smoke alarm upgrade to new ones x 2 - our building is so old the young sparky couldn’t understand the wiring so they had to send someone a second time who also took 45 minutes to fix one alarm
3. The rail that holds the blinds had become lose and they had to reinstall it so that was a 5th visit
4. Strata inspections for concrete cancer and an old water pipe burst in someone’s garage so they visited a few times with tradies to fix both these issues.

These are all fine and are for everyone’s safety/ maintenance purposes but I don’t understand the random, unscheduled visits where they want to check my smoke alarms every 2 months and neither does my real estate agency. She’s as surprised as i am.

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on what our options are here.

We moved into our rental being told that the property had solar hot water and would come with two full gas bottles (We are semi-rural and not connected to natural gas). We only received one bottle when we moved in.

The solar hot water system hasn't been working properly, so we've been relying entirely on the instantaneous gas system for our hot water. We've been following this up with the real estate for over two months now. We've been told by the plumbers that there is no fix other than replacing the HWS, and the agent has said the owner is getting quotes for a replacement.

The problem is that relying on the gas has obviously used a lot more than we normally would. The bottle lasted around 6 weeks, and a replacement bottle is around $250.

We're now out of gas, so we currently have no hot water. We have a baby in the house, so being without hot water is obviously becoming a pretty serious issue.

We contacted the agent again today asking for a solution, and they've now asked us to check whether both gas bottles are turned on. We've confirmed they are, and both indicators are red, meaning we are out of gas.

We're also now being told that we need to pay for the replacement gas bottle ourselves, despite the fact that we were supposed to have solar hot water and two full bottles included when we moved in.

So:

Is the rental provider responsible for providing the gas in this situation, given the solar HWS hasn't been working.

Even if I don't have any gas? Wouldn't the repair of the HWS be urgent as I have no hot water?

Can we ask for reimbursement for the additional gas we've had to use because of the faulty HWS.

Should I be escalating this formally with the real estate, or going straight to Consumer Affairs Victoria?

I'm not looking to screw anyone over, I just don't think it's reasonable for us to be paying hundreds of dollars in gas because a system that was meant to provide our hot water hasn't been working for months.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello everyone. I’m needing a bit of advice or input from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

For reference, I’m renting an apartment in the Melbourne CBD.

Around two months ago, my real estate agent sent an informal email stating that due to “shifting” market conditions, my rent would be increasing from $2,700 to $2950 per month.

I replied with a counteroffer to negotiate the increase, and the agent said she would check with the owners (rental providers). Almost a month passed without any updates. Today, she finally got back to me saying the owners rejected my counteroffer and that the new rent price will kick in at the end of next month.

Here’s the issue: she has only notified me via standard email text. To date, I have not received an official Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) Section 44 "Notice of proposed rent increase" form.

My questions are:

1. Can I insist on receiving the formal CAV Section 44 notice, and does the 90-day notice period start only after I receive that official form?
2. Are they allowed to backdate the notice to when they sent the initial email, or can I keep paying my current rent until 90 days after the official form is actually served?

Has anyone faced this with their agent in Victoria, and how did you handle it? I wonder if it would be okay to keep paying my current rent fee even if I pay after the due date she gave me on the email?

Thanks in advance, and have a great weekend!

Sent an email to request an inspection, as there was no time listed. The REA said that I needed to apply for the house first. I responded that was I was happy to send some data through but would refrain from payslips until after the inspection for privacy’s sake.
She responded that she was too busy with applications so if I can’t provide those details she won’t process my application.

Why would she be processing my application pre inspection?! I know within 30 seconds whether the house is appropriate for us or not. Waste of everyone’s time otherwise.

Hi everyone,

I just picked up the keys to a rental property in Queensland today, and during my initial walkthrough, I noticed that all the kitchen cabinets are completely missing their doors. And that is horrible, all the pan, dishes exposed, does not look tyde and exposed to the dust.

There are no hinges left, but there are very clear, pre-drilled screw holes on the inside of the framework, proving that doors were originally installed there. The agency left this completely blank on their side of the Entry Condition Report (Form 1a).

I am still within my 7-day window to return the Entry Report, so I am obviously going to document every single hole, take detailed photos, and note down that the doors are missing.

My questions for those experienced with QLD renting laws and the RTA:

1. Are kitchen cabinet doors considered a necessity under the Minimum Housing Standards for hygiene/pest control reasons (food/cookware storage)? Or can the landlord just claim it’s an "open cabinet style" and refuse to fix it?
2. What is the best way to approach the Property Manager about this without ruining the relationship on week one? Should I just note it in the report and send a polite email, or is this something worth issuing a Form 11 (Notice to Remedy Breach) if they refuse to reinstall them?

Any advice on the exact wording to use with the PM to make sure they take this seriously would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Looking for some advice or past experiences with agent negotiations regarding rent reductions.

Air con broke and was logged with the agent on August 3rd. Huge delay, endless back and forth with someone coming for a quote then real estate saying landlord was trying to see if he’d be covered by insurance.

Today the agent sent us contractor details for a second quote who no-showed this morn, only for the contractor to tell me they were never booked for today. Landlord then advised the agent gave us the wrong details - it was for a different contractor for a second price, sorry that he no-showed and to go about our day.

It’s 30+ degrees inside the house today (yes you read that correctly), I WFH so cannot escape it and I have absolutely had it. I’m sending a formal email to the agent for a resolution and reqiest backdated rent reduction from Aug 3 until it's fixed.

What percentage or weekly amount is considered a "reasonable" rent reduction for loss of primary AC over a 2-month period in NSW? Should I request a flat percentage or a specific dollar amount?

Hello everyone. I am sharing a house with my friends. I have to move out next Friday because the owner wants to sell the house. He just told me about that two weeks ago. But I haven’t rented a new house yet. I applied for some houses. Is there anyone knowing how long my applications are processed. Thank you so much.

Hey all

Got a rental in Vic and got the keys and condition report yesterday.

I noticed there are just random wires under the house and leaking pipes granted not an electrician or plumber but Pokemon tell me those don't mix.

Also the back of the house floods during heavy rain, iside the house near the laundry and the loo.

There's a bungalow outside but it doesn't seem to be re stumped properly and you can physically move the back wall.

There's also movement and soft patches on the carpet so worried about mould.

My question is do i hassle the really before signing the condition report, get my bond back as I'm not sure it makes minimum rental conditions or just kinda deal with it as by comparison to some places on here it's Buckingham palace.

Thanks

I have a friend that is willing to rent their apartment to me. It’s a good deal financially but I’m keen to hear if there are good/ bad stories from others who have gone down this path.