Thursday, 6 February 2025

Housing

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:54): We have all seen, heard or maybe even lived rental horror stories: houses that have no insulation, hotter on the inside than it is outside; houses that only have enough water for one short shower a day; and houses that have shorting electricity circuits, leaking water or even leaking gas. Landlords would fix any of these issues immediately if they happened in their own home but too often ignore renters when they raise these repairs, hoping their tenants will just move out before they have to actually spend any of their own money on their so-called investments. A recent report by Anika Legal, Too Hot, Too Cold, Too Costly, found that 38 per cent of renters were cold almost all of the time in winter. Better Renting also found that 20 per cent of Victorian rentals consistently exceeded the healthy temperature to sleep overnight in the summer. There is a power imbalance – it is real. Every day more people are realising just who it is that is allowing this broken system to continue, and they have had enough.