Australia’s army of economically useless landlords is covering itself in ignominy. First up, it’s been illegally running virus-spreading inspections and has the temerity to be upset when arrested, via the AFR:
Victoria’s real estate industry body said it had no choice but to instruct members to immediately stop holding scheduled open inspections of occupied private homes after new guidelines from Consumer Affairs Minister Marlene Kairouz late on Thursday ended the practice.
New directions published on the Consumer Affairs Victoria website on Thursday afternoon said agents could no longer conduct open inspections of occupied or tenanted premises because they could not do so and comply with legal requirements for social distancing measures.
Occupants can also no longer leave their home temporarily to facilitate an inspection, the newly updated guidelines say.
…Real Estate Institute of Victoria President Leah Calnan said the industry body, whose members account for more than half of all licensed estate agents in the state, was only informed of the changes at 5.35pm on Thursday, with no prior consultation with the industry
“It’s absolutely disgraceful by the minister’s office,” Ms Calnan told The Australian Financial Review on Friday.
Yeh, she just said that. And guess what, she won!
Victoria has back-tracked on a tough social distancing rule introduced only last week preventing open inspections of occupied homes, a requirement that would have all but shut down the struggling residential market.
Consumer Affairs Minister Marlene Kairouz on Monday reversed regulations the government had justified as recently as Friday – on the grounds that an open inspection was no reason for a resident to leave their home under current COVID-19 restrictions on movement – following heavy lobbying by the real estate industry.
Next up, The Guardian reports on the ongoing financial advice being provided by realtors on behalf of landlords:
When Erienne Lette wrote to her real estate agents asking for her rent to be reduced, she wasn’t expecting what came back.
After her income was reduced by 35% until at least 30 June, Lette hoped she might be able to pay less than $360 a week for her studio apartment in Camperdown, in Sydney’s inner west.
Instead, she was warned that only a deferral of the rent, not a reduction would be considered at all. And she was also asked to fill out a form asking, among other things, whether she planned to dip into her superannuation. Lette provided proof of her reduced income and reiterated that she needed the rent reduced to make ends meet.
She received a one line response from the agent: “But very much able to meet the weekly rent.”
MB has obtained a leaked a copy of a questionnaire being distributed by some Melbourne realtors to renters on behalf of landlords:
Talk about an invasion of privacy. It looks awfully like the preamble to running afoul of ASIC’s directives if not already doing so: that realtors and landlords have no legal standing to provide financial advice:
Landlords must take their share of the hit. Renters have. It is very advantageous to the nation to see competitiveness lift via falling rents. If landlords can’t take the heat then they are clearly over-leveraged and should sell, re-allocating capital to more productive users and uses. This is what capitalism is all about.
State relief has arrived:
NSW Parliament will be recalled to pass the new measures to help renters who have lost at least 25 per cent of their income or businesses with revenue down at least 30 per cent.
The six-month support package for residential tenants and landlords facing financial stress due to COVID-19 includes an interim moratorium on applications for forced evictions due to rental arrears.
…Tenants will be protected from eviction until the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal is satisfied that negotiations have concluded. Any unpaid rent will accrue as arrears during this period.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the government would provide $440 million in rent relief through land tax waivers or rebates to be split evenly between business and residential landlords.
Time to police that it is getting passed on.
Even AFR’s thoroughly-preened rentier readers agree:
Landlords should be stopped from evicting residential tenants who cannot pay their rent because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a majority of The Australian Financial Review’s readers.
In the publication’s latest reader poll, 72 per cent of almost 500 readers said they would support such protections for tenants, while 15 per cent did not.
The 15% that are landlords, no doubt.
