Our Housing Crisis Day 31

If you have been following my series of posts about our housing crisis, it has been over two weeks since I last posted. The previous posts can be found here; Day 15, Day 12, Day 6, Day 1

This is a fairly long post, so please be patient and read to the end.

Today was probably one of the lowest moments in our search for a new home. It had certainly been an eye-opener to the housing rental market in our area and one that reveals some serious flaws in our, read Australian, housing system. But, let me tell the story about the house we found and comment on the issues that arose.

We had been looking at dozens of houses in the area — most are 3 bedroom houses on a sub-divided block, either with a home already built, or the property already subdivided with a fence. In 99% of the houses there was little if not no backyard to speak of. It seems we are trading the great quarter acre home block in for a quick $. No wonder obesity is an issue in kids in Australia, we’re taking the backyard away from our kids, and we’re terrified to let them play in the front or in the neighbourhood in case of abduction or worse (rightly so, I would argue — let’s take our streets back from fear and those who pervert life).

The search lead us to a home just up the street from our present house, a block away from the school and with 4 bedrooms in the same price bracket as the many 3 bedrooms we had been looking at. The ad on the net read like the ideal property; 4 bedrooms — check, ensuite — check, pet’s ok — check; so we rang the agency to find out when the open for inspection was due. That was a couple of days later and we rocked up eager to look around the property.

Along with a few other families, many sporting uniforms of the same school our kids are in (remember, a block away), we looked around the property — the kids found a swing set in the backyard beside the granny flat that was sublet to an 81 year old lady that was next to a grand tree house. There was a kanara, a family room and large kitchen — plenty of room to entertain and for the family. One hitch that became evident was the comment by the agent to a gentleman when he asked about the cat-flap (which I personally was excited about — anything that prevented me from opening the door to our cat every few hours was a godsend!). Her passing comment was that the property was with no-pets — quite contradictory to the website listing. I asked the agent about the discrepancy and she said she was sure it was no pets but go ahead and apply anyway. So, we took a couple of application forms away with us, and very impressed and hopeful that we had indeed found our next home.

That night we filled out the applications forms and gathered the required documentation including id requirements and evidence of income etc. In addition to all that, a good friend of our suggested working up a small A4 information sheet about the Taylor family to give to the agency and potential landlord. I worked a flier up with pics and with some points about our family and with a few paragraphs about what we’re doing, our rental history and the fact that we had paid our car off. So, the next morning, armed with all the documents etc we headed into the agency to hand the forms in.

I won’t reveal the name of the agency as I don’t want to single them out but believe that the practices and issues we confronted are typical of most real-estate agents. In addition, the property manager who took our applications is doing her job and indicative of the system and what property agents are taught in the system now days.

Upon presenting our applications the property manager reviewed them and then calculated our weekly income based on what we had written. She then worked out, based on our combined income, what 30% of the weekly combined income would be and compared that with the weekly rent of the property we were applying for. So, apparently (if you’re mathematical you’ll be able to work out the income etc), we should be applying for property around the $220 range — well short of the $350 a week we were applying for. At that point I asked the property manager and you, my readers, where are you going to find a liveable home for a family of 5 for $220 a week?

The percentage system, similar to the one used to determine eligibility for a home-loan, is based on the belief that 30% of your income is for housing expenses, while the remaining 70% is for food, living expenses, and at least 35% of debt. So, whether you have that debt or not, you are already lumped into that category with those who have the debt. In our case, even though we had been paying just $20 a week less than the property we were applying for, it was assumed that we had massive debt and could not meet the weekly rental.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that there needs to be some checks in place to prevent those who are struggling to get into a home and cause strife. However, this does not take into account individual situations and financial positions. On a side note — this is my biggest criticism of the social welfare system — that the checks and procedures are designed for a one size fit all situation and do not take into account individuals as individuals and NOT as the same as the last guy.

However, in our situation, we argued our case and the property manager accepted that we would be able to meet the payments based on our individual circumstances. She did quantify that acceptance with the comment that the landlord would not necessarily look at it the same way. She did like our flier and said she would show it around the office as it was unique. We left the office with my wife feeling confident, and myself somewhat sceptical.

 Later that day I received a call from the property manager telling me she had spoken to our present real estate agency handling the property we are currently in. Before I continue, we are renting through a very large and well known real estate agency in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. In fact, the agency is known throughout Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. At our local branch of the agency there seems to have been some issues with the property management area. We in fact do not know who our property manager is. We have had two property managers we can identify in the past; the first a young woman who left to have a baby, and a young man who would rather have been selling houses than managing property; and then no notice or introduction.

And before I continue, I will also disclose that we have been paying our rent in two payments each month for the past year AFTER signing a new lease early last year in which the agency was required to modify the contract and while it was on paper it appears that it did not get transferred into the computer system. We had been paying this way because of the way in which benefits are paid to families. Rent and car payments all last year were very heavy on our budget and required management in which it was necessary to make two payments to the agency allowing us to have funds for living etc.

That being said, the property management from our existing agency tells the enquiring property manager nothing about the fact that we have always paid our rent on time each month or the fact that the part payments were in fact arranged, she just tells them that we made two payments each month as a negative. So, the call I received was just to clarify why that had been done and yes, it was in fact not a great report from our agency. Now, that flies against the letters we received when they notified us of the eviction in which they proposed to do everything possible to help us find a new house.

Later that week, about three days after our applications were accepted, we were anxiously waiting after being asked to supply proof that the car had been paid off, expecting to receive a call with some news. Earlier, the property manager had spoken to my wife and all seemed ok — we were one of three applications that were being considered by the landlord. So, when she did call it was to advise us that the landlord wanted to spend the weekend to review the applications. At this stage we had folk from Australia and the World praying for our application.

So, that brings us to today. I received a call on my mobile around lunch time from the property manager telling me that the landlord was reviewing two applications and ours was not one of them being considered. I asked for some explanation to why were not being considered and her reply was because of the income issues and rental history. Later, I went on their website to see that in fact there had been open for inspections over the weekend and even today. I seriously doubt our application even reached the landlord for review as it did not fit the criteria that doesn’t allow for individualism. I do believe that property manager did her best for the landlord.

But, why do we allow the same people who profit from the sale of houses to control the same properties? Higher rents do nothing but line the pocket of the real estate agencies that already benefit by the sale of the house anyway. There is much lately about the rights of landlords but in fact it seems that the system is skewed to benefit and protect only the agents profiteering from all this.

What now? Well, I am going to be contacting our property manager, try and find out who it is and ask why they did not do what they offered, to help, not hinder our search and application for another home. Then, it’s back to the search, and probably more 3 bedroom homes on sub-divided blocks. We would still appreciate prayers in our search, especially as the deadline drawers closer.

This incident and our search is more than ever showing me the problems with the housing and rental situation in Australia. It is a disgrace.

Shalom.

Possibly Related Posts

• March 13, 2010 — Our Housing Crisis Day 15 (3)
• March 9, 2010 — Our Housing Crisis Day 12 (0)
• March 3, 2010 — Our Housing Crisis Day 6 (0)
• February 26, 2010 — Our Housing Crisis Day 1 (0)
• April 7, 2010 — Car Update – Some Good and Bad News (1)

Tagged as: Family, Housing Crisis, Personal