Renters across the county continue to feel pressure around finding affordable and safe housing. Dyxi Mohammed said her roommate ‘narrowly missed’ being struck when their bedroom ceiling collapsed in their Melbourne home. With advocates calling for urgent action to address the power balance between landlords and tenants.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 So this is where the ceiling collapsed in Ida's room.
00:06 Dixie Mohamed didn't know what to do when the roof of her Thornberry share house suddenly
00:10 caved in, narrowly missing her housemate.
00:14 It was very overwhelming.
00:16 There was just pieces of ceiling all across.
00:19 They called the SES for help, who found the roof was being held up by the back of a split
00:24 system unit.
00:26 Jeez.
00:27 Which was very frightening.
00:29 It's now been two months and the ceiling still hasn't been repaired.
00:33 Dixie's been charged the full amount of rent by the real estate agency while she couch
00:37 surfs because she feels unsafe in her home.
00:41 The response received was quite underwhelming.
00:45 It didn't really take into consideration, I guess, the gravity of it.
00:51 The real estate agency has this week offered the trio free rent while they look for another
00:56 place.
00:57 But rental advocates say this situation highlights how powerless tenants are when it comes to
01:02 landlord inaction, with the onus on the renters to ask for compensation.
01:07 In Australia, if a landlord or a real estate agency is doing the wrong thing, it's not
01:11 their job to fix it, it's the renter's job to make sure they fix it, which is just wrong.
01:16 The onus should be on landlords and real estate agents to do their job.
01:21 Dixie's dedicated days of her time reading legislation and trying to research her rights
01:25 as a renter.
01:26 It needs to be recognised the enormous amount of pressure that is put on tenants when these
01:34 things happen.
01:36 Tenants are competing with hundreds of others struggling to find an affordable place to
01:40 live.
01:41 It's pretty disheartening really because there's well over 40 people minimum.
01:49 Long lines and a long road ahead.
01:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]