A renter was absolutely outraged after their landlord left an extensive checklist for them to fulfil if they wanted to pass a property inspection.
Now, it’s obviously not completely unheard of to have a list of stuff that you have to do before moving out of a place, or before the landlord comes for an inspection.
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Things like leaving the place clean, perhaps getting the carpets cleaned or descaling the shower head aren’t – for the most part – unreasonable expectations if you’ve lived in a place for ages.
However, this renter from Western Australia was presented with a full list of stuff that had to be done, right down to the very smallest degree, with a threat issued by the landlord if all of the tasks weren’t carried out.
It goes well above and beyond what a tenant should be expected to do.
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The angry renter shared the list on Reddit, where the notice stated: “Please follow this guide for your upcoming routine inspection to ensure no cleaning items are missed.
“The list below outlines all the areas your Property Manager will be checking.
“Failure to have these items cleaned will result in a breach notice being issued.”
In total, there were 20 items on the list, which delved into great detail about each point that was expected to be carried out.
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It included stuff such as asking for the garden to be ‘weed free and soil turned’ as well as removing ‘all cobwebs’ from both inside and outside the property.
They wanted all lightbulbs to be working, as well demanding that the ‘light fittings must be wiped and free of insects’.
To be fair, the tenant isn’t in charge of what the insects do, particularly in Australia.
Some of the requests aren’t too unreasonable, but it’s just really that there are a lot of them.
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It’s a lot to ask, especially when the person is already paying – you’d have to imagine – a considerable whack of their wage to live in the property in the first place.
Hundreds of people have commented on the post, with one writing: “Next they’ll have tenants dressed in smart casual for inspection days.”
“It should be just about the property. The purpose is to be able to notify the owner if any repairs need to be undertaken, and to ensure the tenant is not causing damage,” wrote another.
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Even other landlords were shocked to see the list of demands that were expected of the tenant.
One said: “As a landlord I’d be pretty p***** if my property manager pinged a tenant for anything on this list unless they’d failed basically all of them at the same time.”
“I want to know about anything that, if left to continue, will cause property damage in the long run.
“Or actual damage/maintenance requirements.
“I don’t care if my tenant just living in the place, ‘cause that’s what it’s for.”
Others have even added their own landlords’ ridiculous demands to the list, with one asking the tenant to ‘soak our cutlery’ and ‘wipe down the sauce bottles’.
Another wrote: “One of ours stated ‘dirty laundry cleaned and put away’… I was like, ‘(who do) you think you are, my mom?’”
Honestly, are landlords OK?
Tom Wood