A “ridiculous” request from a real estate agent following an end-of-lease clean has revealed the increasingly unreasonable demands that tenants face when trying to navigate the tight rental market.
Fiona Morris, who owns cleaning business The Better Clean Team, visited a property in Newcastle this week after the departing tenant received a long list of concerns from the real estate agent about the property’s condition. Fiona told Yahoo News only two out of the 15 concerns were reasonable, with the rest a clear demonstration of an “unfair power dynamic” at play between the agent and tenant.
With one particularly unreasonable request, the tenant was instructed to remove a mark from the front of the dishwasher. Fiona inspected the appliance and found the transparent wrapping was still on it, revealing the tenant hadn’t used it once while living there. Yet, the real estate agent still held her liable for the mark that was easily removed by removing the protective film, with it unclear whether the agent was even aware that the wrapping was still intact.
“The tenant had lived incredibly clean inside the property… but the power dynamic is in the agent’s favour… They just don’t care,” Fiona, who coaches cleaning businesses, told Yahoo News, explaining the rental cost $550 per week. “It was interesting, because when the agent provided it [the list of cleaning concerns] and instantly started harassing and messaging the tenant, going, ‘When are they coming? They were putting a lot of pressure on the tenant.
“This is not an isolated incident; you can see [online] that cleaners across Australia and tenants across Australia are struggling with this dynamic.
“Cleaners aren’t here to be whipping boys of real estate agents. We are a profession… The tenant paid us money just to appease the real estate agent… She could have saved herself $100.”
Has a real estate agent made an unreasonable request to you? Contact [email protected]
Tenants often ‘give up’ in battle with unreasonable agents
Fiona has performed thousands of her end-of-lease cleans in her career that spans three decades, and said the expectations placed on tenants have become more and more unreasonable in the last few years as the demand for rentals goes up, as Australia’s housing crisis worsens.
She told Yahoo News she knows someone who forfeited $800 of their $2,000 bond to simply move on with their life, after a real estate agent was making the departure process so difficult and continued to make unreasonable demands they couldn’t meet.
“Power dynamic between real estate agents withholding deposits that some tenants just give up… They’re doing all the right things and still losing their bond anyway; it’s not OK,” she said.
Fiona, a landlord herself, said the only people who win from this constant tension is the agents.
“It’s in their best interest that the properties are rented out more frequently because they get a re-renting fee… The people who lose in this situation are actually the tenant and the landlord,” she said. “Landlords are losing good tenants.”
What can tenants do to protect themselves against unreasonable agents?
Fiona is adamant that tenants should be given the best chance at receiving their full bond back and be able to protect themselves against unreasonable agents, saying more regulation is needed within the industry to hold agents accountable.
She has created a checklist for tenants to refer to when they’re going through their end-of-lease clean, and she urges tenants to keep lots of proof of the property’s condition, just in case they need to approach the tribunal for help.
“Download some kind of checklist and get a plan together. My biggest tip is to get a plan in place before you move out, and keep lots of photos and documents of the property,” she said.
She slammed real estate agents for “hiding behind their authority” and reminded them that tenants pay their wages, and also landlords’ mortgages.
Across Australia, over a quarter of renters are spending more than 30 per cent of their disposable income on housing costs, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Rent stress is being felt across all income levels, with rent increasing by over five per cent in the first quarter of 2025 when compared to the same time period a year earlier.
This financial strain is being compounded by the tension created by real estate agents trying to squeeze as much money out of renters, and the instability of housing security is also a major factor impacting well-being nationwide.
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This article originally appeared on Yahoo News Australia at https://au.news.yahoo.com/real-estate-agents-ridiculous-dishwasher-demand-highlights-ongoing-battle-for-aussie-renters-035753861.html
