KIDD HOUSE

There has been a good deal of confusion over the years as to how many people constitutes Student Accommodation or a Share House.

The BIG issue is that many students want "cheap" accommodation and due to the little amount of rent paid you also have very low living conditions. Not to mention that this kind of accommodation is often overcrowded. 

Since 1st July 2005 the Brisbane City Council has had clear guidelines on what consitutes a Student house and how many occupants are permitted to live in a house. This guidence was no more than 5 unrelated people. To clarify, if you have two couples and one single person this is (5) unrelated people!

On the 1st July 2009 the ruling was upgraded to 4 unrelated people (two couples or four singles) due to conditions where "overcrowding" had became ridiculous in MacGregor, Mt Gravatt and Sunnybank.

This means that a house with 5 people or more by law must have safety equipment installed - for example "back to base smoke detectors", "exit lights" etc.... if you are living with four others and the house does not have this, it is an "illegal" student share house!

Take a recent situation, on four calls in one day from different female international students, they asked to rent a house close to Nathan Campus Griffith University.

They wanted to know:-

Can we walk to Uni?; Is it cheap accommodation ($95 - 140pw); Does the rent include internet, furniture, power, water? Do I get my own room or do I share it?

The important factor for many international female students is cheap.

They do not care if the house is untidy, has old furniture, is overcrowded illegally, they just want to know that rent covers the utilities.

This kind of demand is partly to blame while the other blame lies with the Real Estates and Landlords who manage the houses. Overcrowded low cost, low standard housing is appearing again in the Mt Gravatt, McGregor, Robertson, Sunnybank, Coopers Plains areas. Three bedroom houses have six people or more living in the same house. Or you will even find six to nine bedroom houses with even more people.

Many of these cheap accommodation alternatives have no lease (week to week) with the landlord knocking on their door every week to collect cash. The bond (if any is taken) is NOT lodged with RTA. There are no receipts for payment.

The current climate has not been kind to Student Accommodation providers? Why you might ask?

* High Australian Dollar

* Federal Government's clamp down on issuing PR and student Visas

* Natural Disasters like the flood in the inner city regions have made the remaining international student re-think their Australian University placements.

* Racial Anger experienced in recent years in Melbourne & Sydney shown in great detail in the media

Cheap, nasty accommodation will begin to fester and grow. The question is will Brisbane City Council police and enforce thier rulings?

The answer is YES and NO!

The link below shows that only July 2010 last year home owners who overcrowded their THREE properties with 35 people were fined $35,000 

Please see link to this article : http://twurl.nl/skvd0s

This was great news to all legal operators!

Unfortunately, with current market conditions becoming fiercely competitive, this low cost, low standard housing is making a fast come back! Brisbane City Counciil does not have the manpower to police this increase.

As a professional or student when looking for accommodation, you should know the following:-

No Contract/Lease

• You could be asked to leave at any time
• You could be asked to pay higher rent at any time
• It is difficult to stop the landlord installing temporary beds and renting these out in the lounge room
• It is difficult to enforce any repairs
• Most housng in this type of situation is of a low standard
• It is difficult to stop other tenants from having pets in the residence if the landlord allows it

Benefits of a Lease and Bond lodged with RTA

• Clear rules and guidelines
• Rent is set for six months or the lease must state clearly any increases & their date to be applied (no nasty surprises)
• Landlord/Manager must abide by RTA guidelines for "Room style accommodation"
• Tenant is in a better position to ensure repairs are completed and living standard acceptable
• All costs, utilities and outgoings included in your rent are specified

Student and Share accommodation can be a wonderful way to save money and meet new friends. It all comes down to the tenant making wise decisions and being informed!

Please see the following links for more information 

Download a copy of "Renting Room style accommodation in Qld 

http://www.rta.qld.gov.au/rooming_accommodation_qld.cfm

Downland a copy of the Rental Bonds Factsheet http://www.rta.qld.gov.au/rental_bond_rooming_fs.cfm

"YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT WE HAVE SEEN!!"

"I HAVE A GOOD IDEA"

"NO, YOU DON'T!"

This is a sample of one conversation I have shared with parents of a student looking for a place to rent this week February 2011.

Sadly, my first Blog appears to be all to familiar to many students looking for somewhere to rent.

This parent's comments were that the houses they saw were not only overcrowded, but messy, smelt, had no safety equipment installed and just generally a disgrace.

As they walking into our unit and then into another share accommodation house for students...they admitted that only now would they believe my statement, "What you see on the website is what you get when renting with Kidd House Accommodation".