Ruling worries good landlords

QUESTION: In your story in last week about backpackers in flats, you said that landlords will be held responsible for tenants’ noise and disturbance.

How can that ever work?  Why should I be fined if prospective tenants turn up in suits but turn into party animals the moment they get the keys? – Bernie, Kings Cross.

ANSWER: It’s actually quite hard to get a Noise Abatement Order, which is what that story was about. You have to prove that there’s a pattern of noisy behaviour over a long period and which continues despite numerous complaints.

The ruling will affect apartments where there is a high turnover of residents, probably over-crowding and no clear idea of who actually holds the lease.  It could be a sub-sub-let, with nobody there to take responsibility.

Why should landlord have to bear the brunt of this?  Because they are making money out of it with zero concern for their neighbours who, we can assume, didn’t ask to live next to Party Central.

This ruling won’t affect ordinary landlords who are just unlucky enough to get some bad tenants.  But it will hit greedy bastards who cram flats full of low-rent transients then refuse to listen to complaints from their neighbours.

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