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Standards of accommodation in the private rental market — why we need to have some

Standards of accommodation in the private rental market — why we need to have some. Presentation to ‘Renting in Tasmania 2010-2020: the next decade’ Consumer Affairs & Fair Trading Conference 2-3 November 2010 Hobart Kathleen Flanagan Research & Policy Officer Anglicare Tasmania.

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Standards of accommodation in the private rental market — why we need to have some

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  1. Standards of accommodation in the private rental market — why we need to have some Presentation to ‘Renting in Tasmania 2010-2020: the next decade’ Consumer Affairs & Fair Trading Conference 2-3 November 2010 Hobart Kathleen Flanagan Research & Policy Officer Anglicare Tasmania

  2. We’ve got thirteen foot high ceilings, which means it’s like an ice box in winter. It gets so damp you can’t shake the salt out and paper just sort of flops. In my bedroom I had to buy an electric blanket because the bed just got so damp. I have to have the window open all year so that there’s a draught to try and reduce the moisture in the room. We can only afford to heat the sitting room, and only then for about two or three hours in the evening.

  3. We saw one private place. It stunk. There were stains all over the floor. $180 a week. You had to share clotheslines and the bins were just in front of the house and there was rubbish everywhere from the other neighbours. And when you opened the stove – I’ve never seen a stove so dirty in my life! And they had a big air-freshener stuck on the wall trying to hide the smell, and that didn’t work.

  4. It’s mouldy. We’ve asked them to fix it and they haven’t. You can smell the mould. I’m just about to pull my hair out. I’m always cleaning the sink out, underneath, because it’s leaking, it’s just got a pipe running down and it’s leaking through the pipe, all over the bench, underneath. It smells musty and you’re always cleaning. And every time you clean it smells musty and then you go again. So you’re thinking there’s really not much point. I open the windows of a morning because it smells real musty. Just makes you feel really sick in the morning.

  5. Mould and damp, leading to health problems No insulation Rising damp and poor drainage Leaks Inadequate or expensive heating No or ineffective window coverings No floor coverings Exposed wiring Electric shocks from switches Windows that cannot be opened Broken pathways Fallen fences Stoves not functioning (only one hotplate working or oven not working) Gaps around windows and doors and between floorboards No smoke alarms Why do we want this? Because of these problems:

  6. We went and looked at a place. You walk into the front of the house, and that’s okay, and as you get further into the back of the house, you see the room’s not square anymore, and the floor is about half a foot lower down over that side than what it is where you’ve walked in. And you go out the back and realise it’s up on stilt things and it’s all sagged and everything. The whole house – the back of it’s all going down on one angle. And then they said, whoever moves in is going to have to put up with – the whole structure’s going to be jacked up over the next couple of months and refitted with stilts and new bricks, underneath. But we applied for it! We had to! That many people arrived and applied for that house. You couldn’t get a park on the street, you couldn’t even walk through the house, there was that many people looking to rent it.

  7. There’s no water pressure at all. And none of us, in the flats, dare complain, because it will maybe put our rent up if it’s fixed.

  8. We ask the landlord to do general things and it just doesn’t happen. It was alright until we asked him to do things. Instead of getting a plumber he’ll come around and do it himself. And the pipes come down through the house. It’s just really dodgy. No, he’s not a plumber. He just does it himself. We’ve had five, six light globes blown. He bought a second hand stove and the electrician was telling me lucky I didn’t get an electric shock because one of the elements he put in wasn’t the right one. And it actually blew out. So it was lucky I wasn’t electrocuted. I’ve only got two hot plates now. You just feel like you’re paying good money, good rent, and you’re really sick of it. We’ve asked him to fix the stove – “Yeah, I’m getting around to it.” But he still hasn’t got around to it. We’re still waiting on it.

  9. Anglicare’s submission to the Residential Tenancy Act review is on our website www.anglicare-tas.org.au

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