A Melbourne rental agent has made waves after accidentally sending a tenant an email intended for his landlord.
In the harsh email, posted to Reddit by the tenant, the property manager touched on his “maintenance sensitive nature” before proposing to increase the rent.
He further complained that of all the properties they manage, the tenant’s requests had taken up most of their time, especially with his complaints about the air conditioning.
“He called every day for two weeks, the receptions (sic) are tired of him,” he wrote.
But from then on the email just got worse.
A Melbourne rental agent made an embarrassing mistake when he sent an email to a tenant that was intended for the landlord
“To make this go smoothly, I think you should offer to renew the lease, but at an exorbitant increase (I think going from $500 to $950) and attribute it to the current rental market,” the agent wrote.
The agent repeated himself further, reiterating that he did not consider $950 a realistic price for a new listing, but that they would likely get a “boost” in rental income while getting rid of the offending tenant.
“If he agrees to the increase, it will be a surprise victory,” he said.
With a crisis in rental housing availability across the country and high inflation making housing less affordable than ever, Redditors took action against the real estate agent’s underhanded and potentially illegal tactics.
Victorian tenancy laws ensure that urgent repairs can be carried out immediately and all other repairs classified as ‘non-urgent’ must be completed within two weeks of a written request.
The tenant’s request to have the air conditioning repaired in a timely manner may have been an urgent request as Victorian law requires minimum standards for heating.
“If it is during a very hot or very cold period, without air conditioning the property may well be uninhabitable,” wrote one Victorian.
This could explain why the tenant contacted the agent every two days about repairs.
The broker’s behavior left Redditors outraged.
“Oh, that’s straight to NCAT (in NSW). I would destroy these people,” and another agreed that email should be enough to make the officer lose his license,” one said.
Many defended the tenant, saying they wouldn’t have to keep calling about the air conditioner if it was repaired in a timely manner.
Another called the agent because he admitted to the landlord that they had not properly handled the tenant’s complaint about the air conditioning.
Others said that without more information it was difficult to know whether the email recipient was indeed a troublesome tenant.
Most found the ‘lazy’ agent’s behavior typical of what to expect when renting in Australia.
‘The tenant did not have the required service work and held us absolutely liable. What a plague,” wrote another.
It is not the first time that property managers have come under fire for scandalous comments.
Perth real estate agent Bronwyn Pollitt recently lost her license for making racist comments in an email to Indian tenants when she told them that ‘Australian standard clean’ was ‘not Indian standard clean’.