A sharehouse was run by a ‘sublandlord’ company. It could be unlawful

ABC NEWS (Australia)

With a tight rental market, more people are turning to living in a share house a sub-tenant. But in Tasmania sub-tenants do not have the same legal rights as full tenants. Advocates for renters say this can leave them vulnerable and some share-house arrangements could be unlawful.

Transcript

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

00:13So said, oh, you know, we've got a room that might really suit you.

00:18When Katie moved to Hobart, she knew it was going to be tough to find somewhere to rent.

00:24So when a company called Arx reached out to her, she jumped at the chance, except she

00:29wasn't signing a lease, she was signing a sublet agreement for a room in a share house

00:35and Arx was the sub-landlord.

00:37I know that things just work a little bit differently than they do on the mainland.

00:43A normal lease agreement is between a landlord and a tenant with a property agent often acting

00:48as intermediary.

00:49Arx was inserted as the sub-landlord, subletting to Katie and the others.

00:54But to be able to sublet in Tasmania, you have to actually occupy the property.

00:59And in Tasmania, sub-tenants don't get the same rights as tenants.

01:04They could be arbitrarily evicted without any of the protections of a normal tenant.

01:10Katie is legally blind and all of her housemates had various vulnerabilities.

01:15A few unusual things started to happen, including Arx moderating a WhatsApp group for the household.

01:22When one of my other housemates there said, oh, you know, my ceiling's leaking, are you

01:27guys going to do anything about it?

01:29Comments like that were removed.

01:31And that housemate was removed from the chat.

01:34They changed the internet password and they sent a message to the group chat saying, this

01:40is the new password, please don't tell this person what it is.

01:44This person is now an unauthorised occupant.

01:48When Katie decided to leave, she was reminded that she was forbidden from speaking out.

01:53That's when they started to tell me, you know you signed a non-disclosure agreement.

01:58As sub-tenants, Katie and her housemates had no legal protections.

02:03In this case, the agreement is just void, which means that no one has any rights.

02:09They don't have a right of occupancy.

02:12Tasmania's tenants' union says the sub-landlord and sub-tenant scheme operated by the NSW Registered

02:17Company is unlawful.

02:20They could go to a court and ask for compensation, but that's not easy and it leaves them in

02:25a position where they don't have shelter.

02:28The Tasmanian government has been aware of the lack of protections for sub-tenants for

02:32some time.

02:33In 2019, it noted that without the protection of tenancy agreements, sub-tenants were at

02:39risk of bond theft, summary evictions and overcharging.

02:43In 2022, the government foreshadowed introducing subletting provisions but hasn't done it yet.

02:49It says it will review the Residential Tenancy Act by mid-2027.

02:54ARCS says it adheres to all Tasmanian tenancy laws and information about compliance has

03:00been submitted to regulators.

03:02It says no sub-tenant has been evicted for any reason and the WhatsApp group is to speed

03:08up house and maintenance requests.

03:10ARCS says it has been gaining insights for app development that it says would benefit

03:15tenants and landlords.

03:17Katie will seek to have her rent returned by ARCS through the courts.

03:21I think they're just taking advantage of the fact that the rental market in Tasmania

03:25is so difficult, especially for single people or people who want to live by themselves.

03:31Without protection for sub-tenants, it's the only step she can take.

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