No-fault evictions put NT tenants at risk of homelessness

When Lara Dunkley first noticed mold on the walls of her Darwin home, she never imagined she would be homeless within six months.

Ms. Dunkley is no stranger to the Top End’s humidity, so when she found the mold, she cleaned it up, told the real estate agent and vowed to use the air conditioner more.

But when she later discovered there was a leak coming from the apartment above, she had to involve the landlord.

“Every day I would come home and wonder, ‘What’s going to go moldy now?'” she said.

“I would throw away a pair of shoes today, a handbag tomorrow… I would spend hours cleaning mold off the walls.

After months of waiting, Ms Dunkley and her roommate moved into a hotel for nine days while the leak was repaired, only to be told, upon moving back in, that their lease was not being renewed.

The two men were given two weeks to leave.

“It was just devastating… we dedicated six months of our lives trying to maintain this property for our landlord, just to be evicted with such little notice,” Ms Dunkley said.

“They said they wanted to sell the property (and) we had someone come in to do an appraisal, but then we saw a new listing a few months later.

“I felt like in the end the real estate agents felt like I was a troublemaker.”

“Gossip” is not regulated

The Northern Territory has the highest percentage of renters in the country, with almost half the population relying on someone else to keep a roof over their heads.

Matthew Barsden is a solicitor for hire with the Darwin Community Legal Service (DCLS).

He said a recent survey of 200 DCLS customers showed Ms Dunkley’s experience was not unusual, with a lack of responsiveness from agents and an inability to obtain repairs both themes major results.

“Very often it takes homeowners weeks and weeks and weeks to make repairs, sometimes months, sometimes not at all,” he said.

“They choose not to seek compensation in more than half of the cases, simply because the reports generally say they are worried about negative consequences for themselves.

“One of those negative consequences could be that because they asked for compensation, they will be seen as someone who is difficult to deal with and they may not be able to get another rental later, because even if blacklists are regulated, gossip is not allowed.

Mr Barsden said while other jurisdictions in Australia have laws against “no-fault evictions”, in the Northern Territory landlords can simply “give notice without cause”.

The cost of living hits renters hardest

For Ms. Dunkley and her roommate, the eviction left them scrambling to find a place to live, and her calls for the landlord to let them stay while they found a buyer fell on deaf ears. deaf.

After several months of couch surfing, a series of family tragedies allowed Ms Dunkley to scrape together a deposit to buy a property, but she still worries “how everyone is going to survive”.

“Five relatives had to die (to give them an inheritance) and I don’t see how it could have happened otherwise,” she said.

Mr Barsden said the cost of living had been very tough on his clients over the past 12 months.

He added that while interest rate pressures are straining homeowners’ budgets, there is a key difference when it comes to those who are renters.

“If you are facing difficulties with your mortgage you can go to your bank and ask for a hardship scheme, they all have them and should offer it to you,” he said .

“No such provision applies to tenants. If a tenant is in financial difficulty and cannot pay their full rent and ends up being 14 days late, they will very quickly find themselves outside of its rental.

“It’s very common and it’s one of the most important legal areas that we see, these terminations for rent arrears.”

Mr Barsden said he would like to see a ban on no-fault evictions, as well as minimum standards for rental accommodation and “a more uniform approach to rent increases”, with the NT the latest place in Australia to grant a penalty six months, rather more than 12 months, cycle.

He says the “vast majority” of NT renters now spend more than a third of their benchmark income on rent, with many paying up to 60 per cent.

A spokeswoman for NT Housing Minister Steve Edgington said the government was “focused on restoring our territory’s way of life, which includes reducing anti-social behavior in social housing.” .

“We will consider reform of the rental regime in due course, as we review our wider policy parameters,” she said.