RENTAL SQUEEZE LOOMS

LANDLORDS THREATEN TO ABANDON MARKET DUE TO CORONAVIRUS PAIN

STRUGGLING landlords are considering extreme measures to keep their heads above water.

According to an advocacy group’s survey, 45 per cent of respondents say they would avoid leasing their properties to hospitality workers.

And 27 per cent say they would prefer to leave their property empty if a second wave of coronavirus hit.

Tasmanian Residential Rental Property Owners Association president Louise

Elliott said landlords would be the first to be hit financially if there was a second wave, but that the implications of this would wreak havoc on an already strained private rental market.

Self- employed refrigerator mechanic Tim Hayden, right, said at the height of the crisis in Tasmania, his income was hit hard and he was left $ 38,000 out of pocket due to the government’s moratorium on tenant evictions.

We’ve been thrown We’ve to the wolves … savings used up all our e money and had to tak the from super to repair damages Landlord Tim Hayden

SELF- EMPLOYED refrigeration mechanic Tim Hayden has a stay- at- home wife, three kids and three mortgages. The 37- year- old Eastern Shore resident doesn’t consider himself wealthy. At the height of the pandemic his income fell below the poverty line as his work reduced from more than 40 hours a week to just five.

During COVID, at a time when the family hoped to fall back on the rental income from their Geilston Bay investment property, it was being overrun by squatters.

Now, Mr Hayden and his wife are out of pocket $ 38,000 in lost rent, legal fees and property damage incurred during the state government’s moratorium on tenant evictions.

“I could tell the property was degrading every week when I was driving past. I just wanted to change the locks because every day was costing me more,” Mr Hayden said.

Following a lengthy legal battle Mr Hayden re- took possession of the property, but was dismayed at what he found.

“There were punch holes through every wall, the brandnew carpet had cigarette burns through it and our garage was turned into a drug den. The damage to the property was atrocious,” he said.

“He’d done nearly $ 40,000 in damage in eight weeks.”

Mr Hayden is concerned at the amount of protection af

forded to tenants during COVID and says measures need to be put in place to protect landlords.

He’s also worried about recent remarks made by Minister Elise Archer on a second moratorium on tenant evictions coming in to play if a second wave of the virus were to hit Tasmania.

“We’ve been thrown to the wolves,” Mr Hayden said.

“At the end of the day we treat this as an investment, and investments can be anything. They can be shares or bank bonds. As an investor why would you accept so much risk?”

He said if Tasmania were to enter a second lockdown, he and his wife would have no option but to sell what was hoped to be their retirement nest egg.

“We’ve used up all our savings and had to take money from super to repair the damages. At the end of the day we couldn’t afford to do this again,” Mr Hayden said.

Support worker Alex Goodwood feels the same. For the past four months he has worked an extra 20- 30 hours a fortnight to cover the loss of having a non- paying tenant.

He says tenants in his Brighton investment property stopped paying rent as soon as the moratorium was announced. To date, they are in arrears of more than $ 6000.

“I just have to cut my losses,” he said. “Because the tenants have got themselves into so much debt, I don’t know how they’ll pay,” he said. “I’m resigned to the fact I won’t receive any money at all.”

Mr Goodwood said he felt a trust had been violated and he intended to evict when the moratorium ends on December 1. “Because in Tasmania tenants didn’t have to prove they were in hardship, the ruling has been abused,” he said.

“It hasn’t started to hit me until the past couple of weeks … now I’m seeing how unjust it is. If I do lease again, a family with a secure job will be of high importance.”