A head tenant of a Sydney rental has outed themselves as a scummy landlord-wannabe online and, unsurprisingly, people are not fkn impressed. Hell hath no fury like broke and scorned Sydney renters.
Reaching out in a Facebook group for share houses in Sydney’s inner west, the anonymous poster asked their fellow renters for advice on how to deal with a pretty fkn prickly situation, if I do say so myself.
“I am currently the head tenant of a 5 bedroom house in the inner west,” the person wrote.
“I sublet to 4 others and have done so for two years. The lease is coming up for renewal and the other tenants all wish to sign on.”
Okay, very normal, please continue.
“The issue is I have not been very transparent about the relative rental contributions and my rent is actually entirely covered by them.”
WHAT.
“How do I go about navigating this situation?” OP asked.
I’ll tell ya how, mate. You come clean and pay them back the money you swindled from them, because this is straight up a scam.
this is what happens when someone has a landlord personality but was born in a generation that was locked out of the housing market pic.twitter.com/7OtJF2PaQe
— chloe sargeant (@chlosarge) January 15, 2023
People online were quick to call out OP for their wildly unethical behaviour.
“Jump in a fucken barbecue is how you do it mate,” one angry person wrote on Facebook. Honestly, 10/10 solution. Light em up, boys!
“I hope they find out and they move out, leaving you to cover a huge rent by yourself. You deserve that and much more,” a second commented.
“You bough the ticket, enjoy the ride!” laughed another.
A minority of people somehow managed to defend OP though, and claimed it was fair to scam housemates out of thousands of dollars because of the, what, three extra responsibilities that come with being a head tenant?
As a head tenant in a Sydney rental myself, can I just say: this is fucking loser behaviour and nothing you do as the head tenant justifies swindling other renters out of thousands of dollars, you freaks.
my fav part is there’s people in the comments arguing not only about whether it’s illegal (yes) but also legitimately debating WHETHER ITS ETHICAL OR NOT. what the fuckkkk is wrong with people honestly
— chloe sargeant (@chlosarge) January 15, 2023
If you want to be compensated for being the main point of contact in your rental, then make sure everyone else agrees to it before they move in? Be transparent about any extra charges that come with moving into your house? Make sure everyone is clear on how much they pay and what this covers? Don’t fucking lie to them???????????
It’s also not like this person charged everyone an extra $10 a week. That would only amount to $40 a week, but this person said their entire rent has been covered by how much they’ve inflated their housemates’ rents.
If we took a wild guess and said people are paying around $200-$250 per room, and there are four housemates, that means they would have to be paying $50 to $60 extra a week each to cover old mates’ rent. That is a fkn lot!!! Over two years that would become more than $5000!!!!!!
OP’s renters could literally have one less housemate and pay the same price they are paying now, or alternatively, get rid of OP and find a new housemate, which would end up costing them 20 per cent less in rent a week.
But wait, there’s more!
In a follow-up comment, OP said: “My concern is if this falls over I won’t be able to afford my mortgage repayments.”
Ah, so they ARE a landlord. Who would’ve thunk it!
@ Whoever OP’s housemates are, I hope you find out about this and get your fkn justice.
