ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Our town’s landlords and property investors are beginning to feel the pinch this winter as the Reserve Bank steps up the war on inflation with yet another interest rate hike today.
In response, one local landlord has instructed his leasing agent to hike the rent by a whopping 25% on one of his French Quarter properties where the tenants were living on a month-by-month arrangement.
The property in question is the top floor flat in a complex of Mertion-style “Boîte à Merde” apartments and unfortunately for the current tenants on Rue des Travaux Septiques building, there’s a large hole in the roof where the weather comes in.
Speaking to The Advocate on the condition of anonymity, the tenants said they asked the leasing agent if they could get the hole repaired earlier this year but “because it’s an issue for strata”, there’s little that can be done quickly.
“They [landlord] told us to take advantage of Betoota’s arid desert climate,” they said.
“That they’d get right on the job and fix it when the season turns. Sure, it’s temperate during the day but if you’ve ever been in the desert before, it gets very cool at night. Plus, as the living room hasn’t had much of a roof for a few months now. Heating an open space like that is quite expensive.”
As the cooler temperature arrived in June, the real estate agent suggested using outdoor space heaters in the living room.
“Because there’s no roof in the living room, it blew off the in autumn storms, they said they’d be little risk of carbon monoxide poisoning from the outdoor gas heaters because it’d harmlessly float away on the evening breeze,” they said.
“Which is a fair point, I guess. But it’s beside the point. I don’t want to live outside. Granted, the bedroom and bathroom still have some roof but in the living room and kitchen, I can see the stars when I’m cooking!”
“So, after they asked for 25% more rent, we said that’s fine as long as they put the roof back on,”
“We don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
The Advocate reached out to the Betoota City Council for comment and received a reply that because the building had not been condemned yet, there was little the tenants could do except move.
More to come.
