Company acting as ‘sublandlord’ accused of creating invalid sublet agreements in Hobart

ABC NEWS (Australia)

As Australia’s rental market tightens, living in a share house as a sub-tenant can be an attractive option. But there are risks. In some states sub-tenants have fewer legal rights than regular tenants and advocates for renters in Tasmania have accused a New South Wales based company of creating legally invalid sub-tenant agreements.

Transcript

00:00So, I put an ad on flatmates.com and just described myself and ARX actually reached

00:09out to me.

00:10So, they said, oh, you know, we've got a room that might really suit you.

00:15When Katie moved to Hobart, she knew it was going to be tough to find somewhere to rent.

00:19So when a company called Arx reached out to her, she jumped at the chance.

00:24Except she wasn't signing a lease, she was signing a sublet agreement for a room in a

00:28share house and Arx was the sub-landlord.

00:32A normal lease agreement is between a landlord and a tenant with a property agent often acting

00:37as intermediary.

00:39Arx was inserted as the sub-landlord, subletting to Katie and the others.

00:45But to be able to sublet in Tasmania, you have to actually live in the property.

00:49And in Tasmania, sub-tenants don't get the same rights as tenants.

00:54They could be arbitrarily evicted without any of the protections of a normal tenant.

00:59Katie is legally blind and all of her housemates had various vulnerabilities.

01:05A few unusual things started to happen, including Arx moderating a WhatsApp group for the household.

01:11They changed the internet password and they sent a message to the group chat saying, this

01:17is the new password, please don't tell this person what it is.

01:21This person is now an unauthorised occupant.

01:24When Katie decided to leave, she was reminded that she was forbidden from speaking out.

01:29That's when they started to tell me, you know you signed a non-disclosure agreement.

01:34Arx says it adheres to all Tasmanian tenancy laws and information about compliance has

01:39been submitted to regulators.

01:41It says no sub-tenant has been evicted for any reason and the WhatsApp group is to speed

01:47up house and maintenance requests.

01:50Arx says it has been gaining insights for app development that it says would benefit

01:54tenants and landlords.

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