The reality behind Know Your Landlord
Does all this sound too good to be true?
Well, it is too good to be true.
We couldn’t build the Know Your Landlord Universe even if we wanted to, because the landlord data on the Know Your Landlord app isn’t available in Australia.
Do you think it’s fair that landlords and property managers collect heaps of private information from tenants, but tenants have limited access to information about landlords?
Do you think we need a fairer housing system, where tenants and landlords have the same rights to data privacy and housing?
We’d love to hear what you think, join the conversation via:
The facts behind this fiction
The facts behind this fiction
Landlords aren’t asked to provide the extent and types of personal information that renters are.
As the power imbalance between landlords and tenants widens, so does the competition between renters.
Unsafe, insecure and unaffordable housing puts tenants’ health and wellbeing at risk.
What if… all housing providers were held responsible for their level of service?
4 key issues we could address to make housing fairer
1: Housing insecurity and instability
Australian tenants are among the least secure when compared to similar jurisdictions
Some jurisdictions still allow ‘no grounds’ (including ‘End of a Fixed Term') lease terminations, meaning people can be evicted for no reason. The threat of ‘no grounds’ evictions means that many tenants are too scared to assert their rights, such as requesting repairs and maintenance.
Stable housing—the ability to make a house a home—is hugely important. Moving is both stressful and financially costly. The added costs of moving can place someone in financial hardship. It may also mean travelling further for work or school – or even needing to change jobs or schools. The impacts of disruption to life and routines, and separation from family and other networks, are all intensified when the decision is outside of a tenants’ control.
Pets are part of the family and for many, are essential for physical and psychological well-being. Pet owners may be forced to pay more, live in less convenient locations, or even relinquish their pets to find a home.
Renters in all jurisdictions must be protected against no cause evictions, including at the end of fixed-term leases.
2: Financial risk and insecurity
Amid a cost-of-living crisis, more than half of renters on lower incomes are in housing stress—paying more than 30% of household income on rent.
Renters are being hit with unsustainable rent increases, with excessive rent hikes vastly outpacing wages. Tight supply and limited regulation means landlords have the upper hand, and rental costs are not in line with fair market values. A recent Corelogic report found that renters on medium incomes pay nearly a-third of their income for a new lease as rents continue to rise, while lower-income households are paying 51.6 percent of their income.
Larger rent increases are becoming more common for all properties, with the largest, on average, for properties with existing tenants.
It’s too difficult for tenants to negotiate a rental increase. It’s also too easy for landlords to keep bonds after a tenant moves out.
A growing number of renters are also paying fees for digital platforms they are forced to use.
Reforms are urgently needed to set fair limits and create protections against frequent and excessive rent increases.
3: Unhealthy and unsafe living conditions
As noted by Choice, National Shelter and the National Association of Renters' Organisations, there are stronger consumer protections and standards for goods from the local shops than for a renter’s home. They found:
51% of renters’ homes needed repairs and many were concerned that a repair request could mean a rent rise (68%) or eviction (44%).
While there are jurisdictional differences, generic provisions requiring a home be ‘habitable’, ‘reasonable’, or ‘safe’ have proven insufficient, and there is often little to no incentive or requirement for landlords to improve their properties, meaning renters frequently experience mould, damp, exposed asbestos, toxic paint and other harms.
Renters also often pay higher utility fees due to the lack of standards effecting the energy efficiency of homes, meaning poor insulation, building materials and old and inefficient utilities.
While jurisdictions differ, it is generally at the landlords discretion whether it is ‘reasonable’ to add disability-related modifications to rental homes.
Rental housing needs clear minimum standards, including around mould and damp. Energy efficiency standards should be mandated, including insulation, energy efficient window coverings and minimum ratings for appliances, to reduce the energy needed to heat or cool a home, and ensure access to an affordable energy supply. Modifications to meet accessibility needs should be a right. Provision of smoke alarms and their maintenance should be clearly mandated so tenants and landlords alike understand their rights and obligations.
4: Excessive gathering and unsafe sharing and storing of personal data
When it comes to data, there is a wide disparity between that given up by renters compared with landlords. A recent report by CHOICE found that, 60% of renters were uncomfortable with the amount and type of information collected and 41% of renters surveyed were pressured to use a third-party platform by their real estate agent or landlord.
The collection and use of tenants’ private information begins with the application process and continues throughout the tenancy and beyond. In pressurised markets where competition is high, renters often feel unable to refuse to use rental platforms and apps over more conventional methods to apply for properties, pay rent, or request repairs or maintenance.
In most Australian jurisdictions there are few limits exist on what personal information and documentation tenants can be legally asked to provide—data that goes well beyond determining if they can afford the property and abide by their tenancy obligations. This situation makes tenants more susceptible to discrimination. Tenants have been asked to provide passports, marriage certificates, visas, car registration, social media accounts, medical records, bank statements, and employment contracts.
Commonly used rental technologies may also incorporate automated decision-making systems that lack oversight, increasing the potential for untraceable discrimination.
These rental platforms may force or encourage tenants to pay additional fees to pay rent, penalties for late payments and charge for their own background checks.
Data handling practices are opaque and where information goes once it is handed over is often unclear. This data can be:
Used to manipulate or discriminate against tenants, often without their knowledge
Held for indeterminate lengths of time
Held without security protections in place
Subject to data breaches and hacks, potentially resulting in identity theft
Monetised and sold
Used in surveillance.
Renters’ personal data should be protected at the highest level, and should not be used to discriminate against or harm tenants in any way. This protection requires changes Federally—to the Privacy Act and Consumer Law—and at State and Territory levels—to residential tenancy acts. Detailed recommendations can be found here.
The Know Your Landlord Universe
This site: an imagined product app that collects and shares landlord and property data.
That’s this site, knowyourlandlord.app
An imagined website for a typical friendly suburban real estate agent and their Instagram account.
Check it out at withinreachrealty.com.au
An imagined real estate listing site, modelled on the most popular Australian sites: realestate.com.au and Domain.
Check it out at fairestate.com.au