Heather du Plessis-Allan: How to pull your landlord into line

Tenants struggling with hopeless owners need more protection. Photo / File

A guy I work with called Matt has pretty much tricked his landlord. It's a wee bit sneaky but that was the only way Matt could make sure he doesn't end up with a broken toilet for weeks again.

Matt's problem started when he woke up one morning to a flood. His garage and a bedroom were an inch deep under water. The toilet cistern was broken. It was still flooding.

Matt called plumber after plumber. None of them would do the job though, because they couldn't get hold of his landlord to give them the okay. They needed to be sure they would get paid. Matt's landlord - somewhere in China - had changed his phone number and email address.

All the while the flooding continued. Finally, a kind plumber agreed to at least turn the water off.

Matt chased his landlord for weeks to get the toilet fixed. Eventually, Matt paid for it himself and deducted the cost from his rent.

That wasn't Matt's trick. The trick's still coming.

Matt has rented in Sydney and the US. He reckons tenants don't have nearly enough rights in this country. It's hard to disagree.

From the outset, the rental process puts you in your place. It's a little insulting to be expected to divulge on the application form exactly what you earn. But, you won't get the property unless you tell a total stranger more than you tell your bestie.

Then these are rights you have in a nutshell: you have a right to rent a house that's in decent nick but you can't change anything about it, you can't make it too dirty, you can't make the neighbours cross, and the landlord will check up on you like mummy making sure you've made your bed. Only bring as much stuff as you can pack up in 90 days, because that's how long you've got once the landlord decides you're out.

Uprooting years of someone's life in three months is not going to make anyone feel at home.

How about letting a tenant paint the inside of the house whatever colour they want when they move in, as long as they paint it white again when they move out? That's what they do in Germany.

Germany is considered some sort of renters' utopia. Tenants can stay for pretty much as long as they want, providing they keep paying the rent. They can smoke inside if they want to. They're allowed to ignore draconian landlords if they start making arbitrary house laws like no baking purple cupcakes after 10pm.

There is, of course, a limit to this property-leasing paradise. It's such a mission for landlords to evict bad tenants it can sometimes take up to a year to get them out.

Still, it's about time we rethink tenants rights. A third of us are renting now. That's a third more than even 10 years ago.

The Government is unlikely to do something about it because it loves the landlords.

So, here - for the thousands of renters - is what Matt did. It so happened Matt's lease was up. He tracked down his landlord and sent him the new lease. Little did the landlord know, Matt had rewritten the document.

He gave himself the right to authorise repairs to the property.

That'll make sure the toilet debacle doesn't happen again.

As a bonus, he slipped in a right to renew his lease as often as he wants for the next six years.

His landlord signed it. Now, it feels a bit more like home.

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