An Aussie renter has opened up about the outrageous demand their landlord made just days after moving in.
Sharing on Reddit, the Adelaide tenant revealed how the landlord had restricted their use of the ducted air conditioning to just two to three hours a night – even when temperatures were soaring.
Even more frustratingly, the renter claimed they’d discovered the landlord had tampered with the air conditioning controls so that the temperature couldn’t be set to anything less 24C.
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In their post, the poster said that there had been no mention of the restrictions when they viewed the property.
“Landlord restricting me from using the aircon to two to three hours a night on days when it is hot, without any prior discussion,” they wrote.
“A couple of weeks ago, I moved into a two-bedroom townhouse in the CBD. My rent is $340 per week which includes all bills.
“I’m technically subletting it from the person who himself pays rent to a real estate agent. I’ll refer to the person I’m subletting from as the dude.
“When I went for the house inspection, there was no mention of any resource restrictions by the dude. However, on my first night, I went to turn on the aircon (it is a ducted aircon with the temperature panel in the living room).
“The dude got the bedroom numbers mixed up when he was telling me which one to turn on, the dude came down to see what was going on.
“I told him I was trying to turn on the aircon in my room, he came to the thermostat’s panel and turned it on for me but said “I can’t let you run the AC all night” and put on a timer for an hour. I protested and he increased the timer to two hours.
“I got really poor sleep that night because of that as the room was an oven as the temperature that day was 38c. The next day, I brought it up and he said that I could run the air conditioning “When it’s more than 30c outside and for 2-3 hours a night”.
“He never mentioned anything of that sort on the lease or orally during the inspection.”
Is it legal?
The renter went on to say that they had agreed to pay extra to be able to use the air conditioning for longer, but was now regretting the deal.
“I negotiated an informal deal with him and to keep the peace at home, I agreed to pay him $50 to run the AC for eight hours per week,” they wrote.
“I had asked to split the utilities but he said he can’t do that because he just got a Tesla and will be charging it at home so it would rack up the bill there.
“Now that it’s been two weeks since the deal and I finally got some time to ponder, I was wondering how fair or legal this deal and situation is. I lived with very controlling people for a few years in the past and this situation has me quite on edge while living here.
“We signed a lease together which is the standard lease template you can get from the SA government’s website which doesn’t mention any restrictions about house amenities.
“He does have a clause that if the utilities exceed $1200 for a duration of 12 weeks, the excess amount will be split 50 per cent.”
The renter’s post sparked a heated response from Reddit users, who were appalled by the landlord’s demand.
“OMG you poor thing. I live in a townhouse. I know how hot it gets,” said one. “The bill is the bill. That’s summer. We all should have solar but we don’t.”
Another added: “Wow , f*** that!”
A third wrote: “[The] landlord sounds like the kind of guy who notices if ‘too much’ toilet paper is being used.”
One more agreed, saying: “That’s what I’m thinking. He’s obsessive about saving every penny.”
Others challenged the landlord on how much he was charging the tenant for air conditioning.
“Push him on the 12-week clause. It’ll cost less than this 50 bucks for eight hours of AC a week nonsense,” one responded.
“It doesn’t cost six bucks an hour to run even the hungriest appliance. If you really want to keep the peace then get the rate he pays per kw/h out of him and pay what the AC actually uses.
“It sounds like he’s basically got you paying the electricity bill (and therefore his car expenses) anyway.”
Another added: “When I’m running my aircon 24/7, the cost is between $7 to $11 a day.”
