Housing Headaches

And here I thought I could escape crap like this by coming to Australia...

We recently received a notice from our landlord that our rent would be increasing, which wasn't really a big deal until we realized by how much the rent was to be going up. Here, the rents are all calculated on a weekly basis, instead of the monthly basis that I'm used to from back home. At any rate, turns out our landlord wants to increase our rent somewhere between 12 and 20%!! This is clearly ridiculous. At heart is the issue that our lease is up here at the end of December and we were hoping to stay on - but with a rent increase like that, we may very well have to look elsewhere for a place to live.

Something about this whole thing wasn't sitting right with me. So I did some digging on the internet and came across the Consumer Affairs Victoria website, where they have all sorts of information for landlords and tenants, rights responsibilities etc. I originally went to the website to see if there was a law here about how much the rent can be increased by - i.e., is this a 'fair' rent increase. Well. In my research I came across a whole bunch of other stuff that my landlord hasn't done which he was supposed to do - and now I'm more than a little angry.

When we arrived at this house, we were supposed to be given a copy of a government booklet outlining our rights and responsibilities as residents in a rooming house. No book. That's an instant $500 fine if I choose to formally report it. Then, we were told to pay a security deposit (bond), which will be refunded to us at the end of our stay as long as there has been no damage to the room. So we paid it. But now I'm reading that there was government paperwork that was to be filled out and kept on file - and we've never seen it. That's another fine. We are also supposed to have a copy of a "condition report" for our room, in case there is a dispute at the end of our lease. While I saw the condition report being prepared, we sure don't have a copy. Another fine. It also turns out that rent increases cannot just be handed out willy-nilly - the rent is only allowed to increase once every six months here, and the residents need to be informed in writing using a specific government form. That's not what happened with us. And finally, although our lease is worded rather deceptively, making us think that we MUST move out in December if we don't sign a new lease, that's not actually the law. We need to give written notice that we are planning to leave - and if we don't give written notice, we are not obligated to move out, even once the lease period is over (this is similar to Ontario, where I signed a one-year lease on my old apartment and then lived there for six years, with no new lease signed).

GRRRR.

So the long and the short of it is, I ended up calling up Consumer Affairs and explaining our situation to them. They told me point blank that we are being ripped off and that we should consider moving out at the end of the lease. It's not that easy though! One of the things Jen and I really like about this house is that there are people living here from all over the world - it's a great way for us to meet new people. If we found our own apartment (and yes, I did research on that too, and we could likely move into a 2-bedroom furnished apartment for only a little more than we are currently paying in rent), we'd be isolated again. That's not the purpose of coming here. Furthermore, in the rooming house we can move out with only two days written notice - whereas with an apartment, we might have problems finding a lease shorter than a year, and we'd have to give at least 28 days notice before leaving.

Part of what has me really steamed is that the excuse for the rent increase is to "keep up with fair market value". But if I can rent a 2-bedroom furnished apartment for less than $500/week, why in God's name would I want to rent a ROOM in a shared house for the same price? Wouldn't you expect that shared housing like ours would be less expensive than stand-alone apartments?

So we're not entirely sure what we're going to do about this whole thing just yet. I am heading downtown later on this morning to go and meet with someone from Consumer Affairs, and I'm taking all of our house paperwork with me. I'm angry that our landlord appears to be playing dirty - and I am not interested in getting burned by him. Had that happen once, years ago when I was living in New Brunswick, and I don't want to go through that again.

Wish me luck!