Are you on Australia's landlord blacklist?
Landlord Watch Australia has taken the concept of a tenant blacklist and turned it on its head - how about a blacklist for landlords?
With the tagline "A safe and secure home is a need essential to human happiness and well-being" the Landlord Watch website asks tenants to dob in their dodgy landlords, and provides "top five" lists of 'Bad Landlords' as well as the 'Rotten Realtor' of the year.
It's not all bad news, there's also a 'Lovely Landlord Award'. Announced in July, it seems that last year they didn't present a landlord with this award as they didn't receive a single entrant for it.
"We automatically review ratings submitted by tenants, but you can also nominate your realtor by email. Realtors can be nominated for the award at any time. We accept nominations from whistleblowers including advocates, officials, and neighbours. Please provide as much information as you can, including correspondence, photos, video footage, and so on," the site says.
The not-for-profit was created in 2012 by two tenants, and it is located in New South Wales and Victoria.
To make the bad landlord list, there's a judging criteria.
Here are a few of the items taken into account:
- Compliance with a tenant's human rights
- Compliance with legal obligations
- Compliance with contractual obligations
- Community and media interest in the issue
- Direct or indirect discrimination against tenants on the basis of gender, family status, sexual preference, age, race, etc
- Denial of procedural fairness or natural justice
- Consequences and impact of their conduct on the tenant and their family members.
- Number of persons affected