Natasha's story

 

Natasha lives with her family in their rented home in the outer South Western suburbs of Sydney. She got in touch with us earlier this week to let us know about her recent experience being threatened with an unfair eviction just before Christmas. Her story is another example of how real estate agents and landlords can abuse ‘no grounds’ provisions – threatening eviction as a way to evade repairs responsibilities and, in Natasha’s case, attempting to pass these on to their tenants.

 

Earlier this week we had a rental inspection of our home. The agent who came through saw that a piece of the skirting had come loose – it’s about five or six inches long. I have actually previously advised the agents of this in writing, letting them know that we have the piece put away undamaged so they can organise repairs. They haven’t yet fixed it. When the agent saw the broken skirting today she told us we had to fix it by January or else we would be evicted.

 

It's a week before Christmas. We have a 3 year old child. And our agent threatens to evict us! We’ve never been even late with rent. We haven’t done any damage to the place. I’m so upset I feel sick. I can’t believe this is happening.

 

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