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A Wellington rental property listing has been scrubbed from the internet after it was posted to social media and ripped apart for asking any potential tenants to not only pay rent - but also work as a live in custodian for a storage unit company.
The property was posted to Trade Me yesterday and asked tenants to pay $475 per week in rent for a one-bedroom flat above Kiwi Self Storage in Kilbirnie.
The building where potential tenants would live. Photo / Trade Me
Any tenant would need to agree to walk the property every night and check everything was in order, and then attend any overnight security callouts and “take the necessary course of action”.
They would also need to attend weekly meetings with the manager of the storage units and debrief on any issues.
The description of duties in the $475 per week Kilbirnie rental. Photo / Trade Me
If it was all getting a bit too much responsibility the landlord had already factored in holiday time - any tenant would get 4 weeks of holiday over the year (not accumulative) and up to (but not exceeding) two nights away a month (also not accumulative).
Also - if the person did want to go away, they would, of course, have to organise security for the storage units.
All of this extra administrative business would be compensated with $50 per week with the potential for more if the tenant was willing to take on even more duties.
The listing was posted on social media where it was promptly torn apart.
“Surely they’re paying someone $475 a week to look after their stuff?” one person questioned.
“So you have to pay for the apartment and also have a job you don’t get paid for. How entitled does someone have to be to even think of posting that as a listing?” another asked.
Other people called it “disgusting”, “hellish” and “a f***ing joke”.
Even with the $50 discount in return for working as security, $475 for a one-bedroom apartment is still in the upper quartile of the market rent for Kilbirnie.
Wellington’s rental market is infamously challenging with high rents and often low-quality housing.
One Auckland man who moved to the capital in January told the Herald he was “disgusted” by the quality of housing.
“The housing stock here is trash for the dollar value requested,” sales manager Jordan Bartlett told the Herald.
Bartlett, 25, is living in a five-bedroom house with one bathroom in Karori, which he and his flatmates collectively pay more than $1200 a week for.
He said it was nothing special and hadn’t been renovated in a good 20 years or so.
“In Auckland, I lived in a house at a similar cost that was equal distance from the city, freshly renovated, two bathrooms, huge open plan living, two-car garage, and five off-street parks.
