Sick of your landlord? Blogger who shines light on terrible properties launches new site where angry tenants can dob in owners and agents
The identity of bad landlords and properties will reach a wider audience thanks to a new website that allows disgruntled tenants to share the condition of their rental properties.
Jordan van den Berg, advocate for tenants’ rights, has been making short videos about poor rental conditions for years and has now launched a website that works as a database for tenants.
S***rentals.org is a platform that allows renters to name and shame sleazy properties and greedy agencies they have dealt with in the past.
Mr van den Berg manually uploads complaints to the public website, which lists the accommodation address and agency name.
He had previously gained a following on social media, where he visited terrible rental properties and helped tenants shame ‘exploitative’ landlords.
Tenants’ rights advocate Jordan van den Berg has criticized poor rents for years and now he has launched a website that works as a database for tenants.
Renters can submit a review of their home or browse the reviews others have posted to get an honest idea of what their future home would really be like.
Mr Van den Berg said his new website will level the playing field and provide tenants with an honest representation of the home they are considering moving into.
“When you apply for a home as a tenant, the agent and the landlord have so much information about you, and you get none of it,” he says. told The age.
‘Nine out of ten times that photos are offered at a rental property, they were from the last time a property was sold. You know nothing about the experiences of the previous tenants.’
Mr van den Berg personally reads all reviews before posting them on the website, to verify that they are true and accurate.
However, real estate agents will not receive a warning before a review goes live, but will instead have to contact it afterwards if they disagree with what is said.
“The real estate agents don’t give tenants a right of reply in their lease databases, so why should the landlord get one,” he told James Willis on a 2 GB disk.
“They can contact me or disagree, so they do have a right to an answer.”
If a landlord were to complain about a review, Mr van den Berg would then ask the tenant if his answer was correct before adjusting the upload.
Mr van den Berg has made a name for himself online for viewing terrible rental properties and shaming lax landlords (photo: an unresolved leak in a rental property)
He has found people living with water-covered carpets, moldy ceilings, exposed wires and asbestos (pictured)
In just a few days, s***rentals.org has had 1,000 website visits and uploaded more than 800 reviews of properties and agencies.
When accessing the website, viewers can submit their own review or read the database of reviews.
The reviews include both positive and negative comments, ranging from the ‘beautiful location’ of one property to the ‘crumbling plaster and bricks’ of another.
“DO NOT LIVE HERE IF YOU VALUE YOUR PRIVACY AND TO AVOID MOLD/LEAK PROBLEMS,” begins a property assessment.
‘Basically we lived here several times (and this also happened to people we knew lived there), the landlord let himself into people’s apartments WITHOUT ANY NOTICE OR PERMISSION, also for non-mandatory reasons.
“We even had to install a security camera in case he tried to let himself back in without any permission or notice while we weren’t home.”
An agency review found that a tenant faced losing his security deposit after leaving an onion peel behind.
‘They don’t respond to emails. They do not recognize the tenant’s requests and needs. They attempted to collect a deposit for one onion peel left in a pantry,” the snap review said.
Mr Van den Berg’s social media channels, where he is known as purplepingers, are dedicated to highlighting the poor living conditions tenants face
A Melbourne property he visited had several plastered walls and graffiti on the walls that had not been cleaned before the current tenants moved in
Mr Van den Berg built a significant following online after consistently uploading content criticizing substandard listings, high rental prices and unresponsive real estate agents.
One property in Melbourne had such soggy carpet that tenants had to put down planks so they could walk around the house.
Mr van den Berg found a house in Maribyrnong, northwest of Melbourne, full of mold, asbestos, crumbling walls and a leaking roof.
Another home in Fitzroy was called out over a particularly misleading advertising photo of a furnished bedroom.
When the tenants invited Mr Van den Berg to inspect the house, he could not recognize in which room the photo was taken.
“This is a five-bedroom house and there’s only one photo of a bedroom and I’m pretty sure it’s not even in this house,” he said.
One particularly questionable entry included a photo of a lavish bedroom (pictured), but Mr. Van den Berg couldn’t even find the room where the photo was taken
Vacancy rates across Australia are near all-time lows; only one percent of the two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, are empty.
There is a healthy rental market for approximately three percent of the available rental properties.
With the market so tough on renters and no signs of it getting better anytime soon, Mr Van den Berg said his research would help.
“Sometimes things can be put right if the right person is aware of them,” he told The Age.
He has pledged to keep the website free and never introduce subscription fees as he continues to develop it and add new features.