Renting - the accepted wisdom

(Last updated 12/5/01)

The Government of South Australia, through their "meet and greet" scheme put us in a basic 3 bedroom house in Kilburn, deep in the middle of the northern suburbs. The house was very basic with no cooling but it had what we needed and it was very cheap, with utility bills included. We could have stayed for 3 months but the area is not one of Adelaide's best and the house was just too basic for us (sorry SAHT, I can't put much of a gloss on it). We stayed for about 3 weeks: just long enough to get a car, mobile 'phone (that's a story in itself!) and recover from the jet lag. All things said and done, what you need when you get to Australia after 20 odd hours of travel is for somebody to collect you, load you into a taxi (already paid for) and take you to your new abode. It doesn't really matter about the quality of the accommodation so long as its clean.

Once we got the car we were mobile and could drive around to visit areas and get a feel for the place. We wanted to live by the beach but found it difficult to find any vacancies within our price bracket. We felt that the southern suburbs suited us better. We saw a couple of places, one at Christies Beach which we didn't get but found out later that that's not a particularly good area either and another at Nuarlanga which is nice. As in several instances I found us in a rather uncomfortable position of feeling as if we were held in low regard; as someone who a landlord would not want to have as a tenant. Nothing I could put my finger on and it may be just a raised sensitivity due to us being new here. I do have some sympathy with the landlords though. If you think about it, I had no job and no references from my previous landlord to recommend me. The fact that I had been a home owner for over 15 years and could almost have bought the house for cash did not figure. I believe that was why we did not get the above two houses. In the end we got a house some 15 or 20 minutes away from the beach in a pleasant area in the south called Happy Valley. I think we caught the letting agent on a bad day. She gave the impression of simply wanting to get the property let so she did not have to do any more work on it!

One word of caution. We paid $90 to Homefinders to find a property (to rent) matching our criterea. They claimed to have daily contact with loads of letting agents, including themselves, and used their computer system to match prospective tenant with landlord and would 'phone us when they found something suitable. Oh yeah! It was down to us to 'phone if we wanted any updates, and even then it was poor quality. The best you'd get was to drive to their office and get the list and trawl your way through it. Conclusion - complete waste of money: don't bother! We found this house by picking up the same sort of list, FREE, from local estate agents (in this case Weeks & Macklin - see www.professionals.com.au). The papers are a good source too, especially the Advertiser.

The most galling aspect of renting is having either the landlord or, as in our case, the letting agent inspecting the place every three months. I think ours was particularly diligent as I have heard other cases where the inspection is not so frequent. I can understand it but I don't like it. Another downside is that you cannot do anything to the property, like putting up shelves etc. The term of the contract is a minor inconvenience as it can be broken. In theory you are bound to pay the contract up until its end, but the landlord has an obligation to properly advertise it and cannot simply expect you to pay the remaining 9 months' rent (e.g.) Naturally, and quite fairly, you would be expected to compensate for the advertising costs. (The Office of Consumer and Business Affairs (Tenancies Branch), number in the phone book, is helpful in giving guidance.)

On the upside, you don't have certain responsibilities for the maintenance of the house, gardening excepted, and you won't have the serious expense associated with selling up if you choose to move, or even give up and go back "home". It gives you the chance to check out the area and also the opportunity to find out more about your chosen region. You might decide to change state altogether.

. Back to my Home page| Back from whence you came.