PHOTO: Rachel Black is organising a petition to the NSW government for a ‘bad landlords’ register. Photo: Peter Rae
Landlords who refuse to carry out necessary repairs, enter their tenants’ homes without notice or generally behave abominably could risk being named and shamed by the NSW government if a new campaign to hold them to account succeeds.
Just as there’s already a blacklist system for terrible tenants, there are now demands that a similar system be set up for lousy landlords – with property industry backing.
“I want dodgy landlords to think twice before trying to do over a tenant because they will be put on a database that anyone can access,” said graphic designer Rachel Black, who’s just launched a petition to members of the Legislative Assembly to introduce the system.
“In NSW, a tenant enters a lease with no indication of what the landlord has been like in the past. Tenants don’t have access to maintenance records, ex-tenant references or any tribunal dealings the landlord has been involved in and, by the time a tenant finds out there are maintenance or landlord issues, they’ve already spent the time and money moving in.”
Landlords, however, can easily tap into the privately run tenancy blacklist, and often threaten tenants they will be put on it if they misbehave. But no equivalent exists for a landlord who refuses to toe the line.
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