An unannounced visit from your real estate or landlord is something that strikes pure fear into the hearts of every renter alive. Just when we thought that was the peak of renting terror, a Brisbane sharehouse has upped the ante. They came home to find their landlord had installed a bunch of CCTV cameras in their student accommodation house with absolutely no notice.
I’m sorry, what the fuck?
Per The Australian, three blokes in their twenties recently discovered eight cameras dotted around the common rooms of their Heston sharehouse which was apparently done at the request of the student accommodation company, Hive.
The men — 23-year-old Ameya Tidke, 22-year-old Daniel Delaney and 27-year-old Nathan Thomas — were reportedly told that an electrician would be coming to their house during a kitchen reno early last month. They claim they weren’t at any point told that the sparkies would be installing a bunch of cameras inside and outside the house.
“It has really upset us a lot,” Nathan told The Australian.
“The goalposts, they’ve changed … you know, I really don’t like people filming me without my knowledge.”
Ameya said if they’d known the house was going to have cameras in it at any point, they wouldn’t have signed the lease.
“None of us signed up for this,” he said.
“If it was here before we signed the lease, and they explicitly mentioned there were going to be cameras in the common rooms, I probably would not have signed and I’m pretty sure nobody would have.
“It’s fucking crazy.”
An email from a Hive property manager said the decision to put cameras in the common rooms was made by the landlord and is for “security purposes only”. They also claimed that footage from the cameras would only ever be sought out “if there is an issue with theft or common area cleanliness/damages”.
According to the Queensland Government’s Residential Tenancies Authority, all tenants are entitled to “reasonable peace, comfort and privacy” which is known as “quiet enjoyment”.
I dunno about you but having multiple cameras watching my every move in the lounge room (a sacred space where I can fart on my couch with nary a thought) doesn’t give me the feeling of quiet enjoyment.
