Living with housemates involves a crucial factor: other people. And with rents soaring, it’s also many people's only housing option.
Maybe you’ve had a housemate who occasionally leaves the kitchen messy, or likes to blast music late at night. But what if your housemate refuses to pay rent or bills? What if they make your living situation untenable? Do you have any protection?
When your living situation deteriorates
When 22-year-old Georgia, (not her real name), moved in with the then-partner of a close friend, she didn’t know she’d end up feeling like his mum.
Earlier this year, she got a message from her housemate on their rent day saying he could only pay $800 of his $1200 monthly rent.
“Obviously, I was left to pay myself,” she told The Feed.
As well as finances, other behaviours contributed to their deteriorating relationship.
“It was, I want to say, weaponized incompetence in a lot of regards, the way he would do things very poorly or he would act like he didn't know about them and then he would have to make me do it,” Georgia said.
“I don't think he's ever been in contact with any real estate agent or anybody .… The responsibility was always put on me to do all of these things.
“I felt like a mum to him a lot of the time and I really, really didn't like doing that. And it got to the point where in July he could just expect me to pay the remainder of his rent.”
Georgia felt like she had no alternative, because they would both be put in arrears if her housemate didn’t pay his rent.
In Georgia’s situation, both tenants were on the lease, making them co-tenants. Other rental agreements can include a head tenant subletting a room to someone. A renter also might not be written on the lease at all - though in NSW at least, this means you aren't protected by the Residential Tenancy Act.
Ned Cooke leads the tenancy team at NSW’s Redfern Legal Centre. “If you’re co-tenants, it can be pretty hard to force your co-tenant to leave the property,” he said.
If one person agrees to leave, their tenancy can be transferred to a new housemate, but it has to be arranged with the old housemate, new housemate and landlord.
The situation is the same in Victoria, where Georgia lives.
Rebecca Leighton, a lawyer at Melbourne's Fitzroy Legal Service, said: “there’s nothing you can do to remove a co-tenant without their agreement”. Like NSW, both your landlord and housemate need to be on board.
Rebecca said there's nothing a tenant can do to remove someone else from the lease without their agreement. Credit: Credit: Supplied / Fitzroy Legal Service
“In Victoria, we have a provision to end the entire tenancy for unforeseen severe hardship, which is very broad and quite difficult to access. And we have family and personal violence provisions.”
These can only be triggered by a personal safety intervention order, which is made by a magistrate.
“If you have safety concerns that fall short of an intervention order … you can't really do anything,” Leighton said.
Getting help with your housemates
Last year, 33-year-old Jordan Crothers went to the Queensland Civil Administrative Tribunal for support with his housing situation.
His relationship with his co-tenants had deteriorated to such an extent that he knew he had to leave the house.
“I called them (the tribunal) first just to get a bit of clarity around the whole thing. They were really lovely on the phone in explaining what needs to happen, what I [needed] to have when they'll be in contact," Jordan told The Feed.
“Then basically when I did send them an email for the lodging, it was all of my police reports, recordings, text messages that I've had, screen caps of [his housemates] being very unreasonable and difficult to deal with, messages from the neighbours.”
After waiting a few days, he had a case date set for two weeks later. The tribunal awarded in his favour.
“I literally had my bond back an hour later, sent the result to the real estate and I was off the lease that day,” he said.
Jordan acknowledged that you sometimes hear “horror stories” about tribunals, but his experience was “really smooth”. He also had a letter of support from a previous tenant, who had lived with both Jordan and one of the housemates he was trying to get out of living with.
Are you entitled to a tribunal hearing?
Not everyone is guaranteed a tribunal hearing. Like tribunals in a number of states, QCAT doesn’t normally deal with disputes between tenants.
In the ACT, you can apply to the ACT Civil & Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) to resolve co-tenant disputes.
According to Ned Cooke, it’s rare for a NSW Tribunal to look into removing a co-tenant unless there are special circumstances, which primarily concern domestic violence.
“Generally just not getting along or having disagreements about the dishes or whatever, or maybe even issues with rent and things, is certainly not going to get across the line in the tribunal,” he said.
When Georgia investigated seeking help through official channels, she found it “beyond stressful”.
She initially contacted the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), which said it couldn’t help because it was a dispute between tenants.
She then called the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria, where she received an automated message.
According to its website, the centre's phone line is temporarily closed “to provide a mediation service for residential tenancies disputes lodged with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal during increased demand for VCAT’s services”.
So Georgia tried contacting other places, who all directed her back to the Dispute Settlement Centre, where she ultimately lodged an online form. She heard back after about a week.
Georgia had hoped to access mediation and come to an agreement as soon as possible, but it was ”impossible to do so”. She says the Dispute Settlement Centre advised her to contact her landlord and then contact it again if there were further issues.
Leighton described this as “exactly the cycle of referrals that you’re going to get sent on”.
“The reality is that unless the Dispute Settlement Centre can do some mediation, there is nothing anyone can do,” she said.
“Essentially you're on your own unless it escalates to the sort of situation where the police become involved.”
Can landlords get involved in a tenant dispute?
Despite knowing it would be illegal, Georgia was “terrified” her landlord or property manager would evict her and her housemate if she told them about the situation.
“During the rental crisis and things like that, if they got rid of us, there's going to be people that can just easily move back in. They can replace us incredibly easily with an increased rental price.”
There is no requirement in Victoria or NSW for landlords or agents to become involved in disputes.
“Essentially their concern is with … if the rent's being paid, if there's damage being done to the premises and things like that,” said Cooke.
“I'd say it's pretty uncommon for landlords to get involved in disputes within the household, although they may have a role when it comes to things like [lease transfers].”
Jordan didn’t have a direct line of contact to his landlord, though he did reach out to the real estate agent about his situation.
“[She was] very hit and miss, to be honest with you, in terms of assistance. All she really said was, ‘You need to do an urgent QCAT claim’.”
Added pressure due to the housing crisis
Georgia is living interstate from her family, so doesn’t have parents in Victoria to fall back on if she was evicted by her landlord.
“I'm just trying very hard to keep this place and maintain it and everything. But I couldn't do that looking after another person,” she said.
The increasing cost of renting can also add pressure to sharehouses, Cooke said.
“Rent may move into the territory of unaffordability [and] some housemates are happy to pay or can afford to pay the increased rent, and others can’t,” he said.
“There's been a lot of movement within sharehouses. There's also not enough places to go around, so there's a lot of competition for any rental properties.”
Jordan is still renting, this time in a different sharehouse.
“I'd probably prefer something a little bit nicer, but you can't be picky from the current climate. You literally just have to take what you can get,” he said.
Georgia’s housemate has agreed to move out of his own accord and paid back the rent money she covered. The situation and the housing crisis have left her questioning her decisions, wondering if she’d been too hard or “irrational”.
“But it got to the point where I couldn’t keep jeopardising my mental health, my financial security for somebody else,” she said.
“I needed to emphasise my wellbeing because it really, really, really was affecting me deeply.”
