Tasmanian-born couple Karan Boseley and James Hinds have had a rough trot in Sydney’s rental market.

But the Hobart-raised pair were in for a shock when they moved up to the Harbour City, where they’d get to know the housing affordability crisis first hand.

After being turfed out of their Ashfield apartment when they learned the man they were renting from was illegally subletting, the couple had to find a place to live quickly.

So when a friend on Instagram told Ms Boseley a room in her Paddington share house was about to become available, the couple packed their things and moved across town.

“It’s riddled with cockroaches, the roof is dipping and the bathroom water from the shower gets trapped in the door,” she said.

“One of the bathrooms doesn’t work, the washing machine doesn’t work and there’s black mould that’s been painted over with white paint ... The room was spray painted black when we moved it, we painted it back to white.”

Mould and water damage at the Paddington house that rents for a total of $1430 week.Source:Supplied

Although it was a dive, they were relieved to have a roof over their heads at such short notice. But things went pear-shaped when the landlord showed up waving paperwork for them to sign and demanding $400 a week rent, instead of the $300 they had initially agreed on.

With three couples and a single packed into the run-down home, the landlord was raking in a total of $1430 a week, Ms Boseley said.

The “occupancy agreement” included a Draconian list of “house rules”, including a ban on having friends over to stay the night, and stated that residents could be evicted “at any time” and would forfeit their bond if they moved out within six months or less.

It also allowed the landlord to show up at any time without notice, and specified that “I am an occupant and not a tenant”, intended to wipe out legal protections.

Ms Boseley refused to sign the form and tried to negotiate more reasonable terms, leading to a confrontation with the landlord that resulted in the police being called.

‘No overnight visitors.’
Source:Facebook

‘The landlord reserves the right to enter.’Source:Facebook

“The only reason we disagreed is that the rules were a little bit ridiculous,” she said. “James’ mum comes up from Tasmania sometimes, we don’t want her paying for an Airbnb when she can just stay with us for a day or two.”

Now the couple is in yet another short-term sublet, with the dream of a stable, affordable home eluding them.

“We got accepted for a couple of houses that we viewed, but we couldn’t depend on that with the time limit we had so we just had to move into this place,” Ms Boseley said. “The goal is to stay for a little bit and not think about sharing ever again.”

Two weeks after moving out, they still haven’t got their bond back, or the rent they say they’d paid in advance.

SHARE HOUSING LEAVES RENTERS EXPOSED

It’s an ordeal that’s becoming more common in the crowded, expensive rental market, said Ned Cutcher of the NSW Tenants’ Union.

“For people living at the cheaper end of the market, it’s an enduring problem, and that’s because the cheaper end of the market has all but disappeared in real terms,” Mr Cutcher told news.com.au.

“The space in which these kind of charlatans might operate is growing, as housing affordability slips away from us.”

The latest data from the Real Estate Institute of NSW showed the vacancy rate for rental properties in Sydney was 1.7 per cent in October, down 0.2 per cent from the previous month.

Fierce competition for rental properties meant that occupancy agreements like the one Ms Boseley and Mr Hinds were asked to sign were cropping up more often, Mr Cutcher said.

“Traditional rental arrangement that we might think of are getting harder and harder for people to access, where a couple rents a detached dwelling or an apartment together, simply because they can’t afford it,” he said.

“And so they look to share with others or they look to the more affordable option which is a granny flat or a room in somebody’s house, and expose themselves to these potential problems with their rights.”

While a standard lease, or residential tenancy agreement, contains statutory protections that stop a landlord from evicting tenants for no reason, alternative arrangements can leave renters in a legal limbo.

The union is lobbying to have the law “brought up to scratch” to protect everyone who rents a room or dwelling, whether they are on the lease or not.

“Borders and lodgers, people living in a share house without a written agreement or even with a head tenant, could be on very shaky ground in terms of their rights,” Mr Cutcher said.

“They may think they have rights where in fact they don’t. And often people don’t realise this or come to understand what their rights are until a dispute is in full swing.”

Both the NSW and Victorian governments are reviewing their Residential Tenancy Acts, with new legislation due to be introduced in their respective parliaments early next year.

“We’d like to see statutory protections for everyone who pays a fee or rent in exchange for their principle place of residence, ensuring that share house tenancy agreements are not excluded from coverage of the Residential Tenancies Act,” Mr Cutcher said.

dana.mccauley@news.com.au