Landlord orders Aussie renter to cough up more than $1,000 to fix ‘invisible’ scratch

A furious Australian tenant has turned to the internet for advice after their former landlord demanded $1,000 to fix a small, barely noticeable scratch.

The tenant, from Sydney, shared two photos of scratches on the floorboards in their living room, which had appeared since they and their partner moved in.

However, they questioned whether the owner was right to require the entire floor to be replaced.

“I just want to ask if you think it’s ridiculous that my landlord wants to pay $1,000 for a minimal scratch on a panel of a hardwood floor?” they asked online.

“Does that make sense to you?”

Hundreds of commenters were horrified by the owner’s request and accused them of ‘extorting’ the couple.

The tenant followed up their post with an update a few days later.

“We told (the estate agent) we were going to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, NCAT, as we did not agree to pay the $1,000,” they wrote.

“The agent came back to us and said they had a serious discussion with the owner and the owner decided to lower the fee to $500.

At first I didn’t want to pay $500 and insisted on going for NCAT and my partner agreed, but after two days he asked me if we can close the case and just pay him $500 because he doesn’t want to waste his time his.

“I hope she spends that $500 well because if I wasn’t with my partner I would have gone to court.”

Although the couple agreed that taking the matter to court ‘wasn’t worth anyone’s time’, they were confused when they discovered someone else was already living in the house.

“Does the owner want to do the floor while there are new tenants staying?” the tenant wrote.

‘No sense. They even had the audacity to complain about the blind saying it wasn’t being tracked properly, which wasn’t even true.’

Hundreds of other commenters were shocked that the couple still paid $500.

“That’s almost certainly under ‘normal wear and tear’ – if he didn’t expect a wooden floor to scratch, then he shouldn’t have laid it. That’s a joke,” said one.

“Owners should be asked to show a photo of the repaired damage within a month or else take it back,” wrote another.

“Given to their demands just reinforces that behavior and will encourage them to continue to kidnap people in the future,” said a third.

Not even that scratch can be repaired. Maybe just try the same thing with the other tenant,” wrote another.