Tenant stirs up controversy by saying he doesn’t pay rent, overcharging roommates

An Australian tenant has been ruthlessly disgraced after coming out publicly for making his four housemates pay all their rent while they lived for free.

For two years, this man was the sole tenant of a rental property in Sydney, Western Australia, while subletting four rooms to people who unwittingly covered the full cost of the house.

As the lease nearly expired, the main tenant began to panic this week after additional letters indicated they would like to be on loan.

“I ask for advice. I am currently the main tenant of a five bedroom home in the Inner West. I sublet four others and did it for two years. The lease is eligible for renewal and all other tenants are willing to sign it.

“The problem is that I haven’t been very forthcoming about the relative rents and my rent is in fact completely covered by them.

“What should I do in this situation?”

The advice was the last thing the tenant received, and his post received hundreds of comments from angry members of the community, some of whom accused them of “stealing” and “fraud.”

“Yeah buddy, that’s bullshit…. You pretty much stole from these people for two years,” reads one reply.

“From the people with whom you live no less! Lying about total rent is grounds for NCAT [New South Wales, Australia Civil and Administrative Tribunal] case. I hope they see it and I hope they give back every cent,” said another.

“For those who say it is not illegal, lying to others for financial gain is a scam that is illegal. The financial benefit here is that they pay rent,” said someone else.

“At the lowest estimate, you stole at least $50 per person per week. You stole over $20,000,” wrote another.

However, there were those who did not see anything wrong with the actions of the tenant.

“I literally don’t understand the problem here – you rented a room, and you rent out rooms, you can take as much as you want,” one of them wrote.

“Even though it’s morally shitty, it’s not illegal. It’s basically the same as landlords using tenants to pay off their mortgages,” another said.

Leo Ross, CEO of the Tenants’ Union in Australia, confirmed that subletting is not illegal if the main tenant has the landlord’s permission.

Legality aside, he said the tenants were struggling with the morality of the issue.

“I think what people are struggling with is the culture or morality around shared housing where people see it as sharing resources and helping each other,” he told ABC News.

“It’s kind of an affront to the culture of living together, but it’s very different from legality.”

And this action, according to Mr. Ross, is more common than many think.

“I certainly heard from many people whose senior tenants either raised enough money to cover the entire cost of the house or gave themselves a discount so they paid significantly less, usually for the largest room,” he said.