Living with housemates involves a crucial factor: other people. And with rents soaring, it’s also many people's only housing option.
Maybe you’ve had a housemate who occasionally leaves the kitchen messy, or likes to blast music late at night. But what if your housemate refuses to pay rent or bills? What if they make your living situation untenable? Do you have any protection?
When your living situation deteriorates
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When 22-year-old Georgia, (not her real name), moved in with the then-partner of a close friend, she didn’t know she’d end up feeling like his mum.
Earlier this year, she got a message from her housemate on their rent day saying he could only pay $800 of his $1200 monthly rent.
“Obviously, I was left to pay myself,” she told The Feed.
As well as finances, other behaviours contributed to their deteriorating relationship.
“It was, I want to say, weaponized incompetence in a lot of regards, the way he would do things very poorly or he would act like he didn't know about them and then he would have to make me do it,” Georgia said.
“I don't think he's ever been in contact with any real estate agent or anybody .… The responsibility was always put on me to do all of these things.
“I felt like a mum to him a lot of the time and I really, really didn't like doing that. And it got to the point where in July he could just expect me to pay the remainder of his rent.”
Georgia felt like she had no alternative, because they would both be put in arrears if her housemate didn’t pay his rent.
In Georgia’s situation, both tenants were on the lease, making them co-tenants. Other rental agreements can include a head tenant subletting a room to someone. A renter also might not be written on the lease at all - though in NSW at least, this means you aren't protected by the Residential Tenancy Act.
Ned Cooke leads the tenancy team at NSW’s Redfern Legal Centre. “If you’re co-tenants, it can be pretty hard to force your co-tenant to leave the property,” he said.
If one person agrees to leave, their tenancy can be transferred to a new housemate, but it has to be arranged with the old housemate, new housemate and landlord.
