Yup not only are they paying more than we did proportionally, these are the same houses with 40 years more neglect to them than in the 80s. So, these kids pay more for less. In '89 my partner and I shared a mildly grotty flat under a house in Wadestown that got no sun, had mice as well as mold and was up far too many stairs. But it was only $90 a week. My half was completely covered by my student allowance, and I made fairly good money doing after school care and catering jobs. When we moved to a house the whole two bed thing was $240 and among us and our flatmate it was low proportion again. Makes me mad.
FUCK YES!!! Such a disgrace. Thank you for writing this and for taking the mop to the mould presumably to get the outrageous bond back. Who ARE these people
$320 for a shared room in a shared house is insult enough, without all the mold and cold to rub it in further.
When Infirsr.moved to Wellington from the UK in 1989, $180/week got.me a two bedroom, newly renovated upstairs flat in Mt Cook. It was cold but never damp or mouldy.
I'm surprised their place met the healthy homes standards.
This! This, unfortunately, is what disreputable landlords rely on. And the fear for tenants is real. I hope your son and his partner have found something considerably better and with a responsible landlord.
Last time I rented, the lock on the front door broke so they door wouldn’t even stay closed. Called the landlord immediately, it was first thing on a Monday morning so one of us had to stay home from work to wait. The landlord sent someone over to fix it - not a locksmith, just some random guy. He arrived at after 4pm and said “oh this needs replacing, it’s too late to go to the locksmith now, I’ll come back tomorrow.”
The next day I was the one who stayed home from work to wait. Sure enough, once again he arrived after 4pm (hours after I had called the landlord and lost my patience at him). The guy sounded like he was fixing it by repeatedly bashing it with a hammer. Eventually he came and told me “I don’t have the right tools, I’ll come back tomorrow.”
The third day my flatmate again stayed home from work. This time when I came home it was fixed. We had two entire nights with out front door propped closed unsecured, and lost three work days between us, because the landlord was too cheap to call a locksmith and got an incompetent mates rates guy.
I can’t imagine how a kid would have coped in this actively dangerous situation.
About 15 years ago I had the misfortune to be living in a rented house in a fairly rough seaside suburb. It was a cold, draughty ex-state house renting at (I think) $210 a week and had a 20 litre hot water heater installed for a 3 bedroom home. You could either wash the breakfast dishes or have a shower, not both within the same three hour period. During my first shower in the house I looked up at the bathroom window and saw bullet holes in the glass. I rang the landlady and told her, asked her to replace the glass. "It was like that when I bought the place," she said. It was never fixed.
How some landlords sleep at night is beyond me
Yup not only are they paying more than we did proportionally, these are the same houses with 40 years more neglect to them than in the 80s. So, these kids pay more for less. In '89 my partner and I shared a mildly grotty flat under a house in Wadestown that got no sun, had mice as well as mold and was up far too many stairs. But it was only $90 a week. My half was completely covered by my student allowance, and I made fairly good money doing after school care and catering jobs. When we moved to a house the whole two bed thing was $240 and among us and our flatmate it was low proportion again. Makes me mad.
FUCK YES!!! Such a disgrace. Thank you for writing this and for taking the mop to the mould presumably to get the outrageous bond back. Who ARE these people
I bet it meets the minimum requirements of the “Healthy Homes Standards” too 🥴
$320 for a shared room in a shared house is insult enough, without all the mold and cold to rub it in further.
When Infirsr.moved to Wellington from the UK in 1989, $180/week got.me a two bedroom, newly renovated upstairs flat in Mt Cook. It was cold but never damp or mouldy.
I'm surprised their place met the healthy homes standards.
I don't see how it could. The kids don’t want to speak out for fear of being blacklisted. 😞
This! This, unfortunately, is what disreputable landlords rely on. And the fear for tenants is real. I hope your son and his partner have found something considerably better and with a responsible landlord.
Yep, it's disgusting what landlords get away with, and some people suffer with it because there simply are no other options of where to live.
😤
Last time I rented, the lock on the front door broke so they door wouldn’t even stay closed. Called the landlord immediately, it was first thing on a Monday morning so one of us had to stay home from work to wait. The landlord sent someone over to fix it - not a locksmith, just some random guy. He arrived at after 4pm and said “oh this needs replacing, it’s too late to go to the locksmith now, I’ll come back tomorrow.”
The next day I was the one who stayed home from work to wait. Sure enough, once again he arrived after 4pm (hours after I had called the landlord and lost my patience at him). The guy sounded like he was fixing it by repeatedly bashing it with a hammer. Eventually he came and told me “I don’t have the right tools, I’ll come back tomorrow.”
The third day my flatmate again stayed home from work. This time when I came home it was fixed. We had two entire nights with out front door propped closed unsecured, and lost three work days between us, because the landlord was too cheap to call a locksmith and got an incompetent mates rates guy.
I can’t imagine how a kid would have coped in this actively dangerous situation.
About 15 years ago I had the misfortune to be living in a rented house in a fairly rough seaside suburb. It was a cold, draughty ex-state house renting at (I think) $210 a week and had a 20 litre hot water heater installed for a 3 bedroom home. You could either wash the breakfast dishes or have a shower, not both within the same three hour period. During my first shower in the house I looked up at the bathroom window and saw bullet holes in the glass. I rang the landlady and told her, asked her to replace the glass. "It was like that when I bought the place," she said. It was never fixed.