Beware: Share Housing Part 1

To begin, I thought I'd just attach a little disclaimer. This blog post might veer off into the realm of 'too much information.' Fear not males, I will not be discussing the intricacies of womanly life, I will be discussing something personal that has happened in my life recently, and by discussing I mean bitching, and by personal I mean this is my blog AND I'LL DO WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT. xoxox.

To begin. Instead of forking out 7 grand for one semester of college, I thought I'd be smart and save $ by going into privately owned share housing. I am an idiot.


When I arrived to this Brisbane house, I was fresh out of Mackay, didn't know a thing about living without my parents and  was seemingly lulled into a false sense of comfort by the owners of this accommodation - lets call them Rose and Steve for anonymities sake. Sure enough as soon as I sat down with them at the kitchen table, they went through the agreed upon rent, $160 per week. Fine. However, they had neglected to mention the extra $25 dollars a month they wanted for 'supplies.' Fair Enough. Then they made it very clear that they did not accept payment weekly, it was monthly. Of course, the advertisement had said weekly, although this didn't make me too anxious, that was until they told me they calculated it not every 4 weeks, but based on the full year. This means I had to pay the maximum amount they could squeeze out of me. Not happy. However, semester was starting and I seriously had no choice. Luckily for me, my father pays the rent, God bless him.

After a few weeks I started to become friends with my roomates: Marine, Elisa, Vy, Soo and Kevin.

All was well and good, until Elisa and Soo decided the monthly rate was too expensive (for students who get only get $1000 in schloarship per month), and they wanted to leave, however, this, according to Rose and Steve, was 'breaking the contract.' Now, it should be clear that there was no contract. In fact, every single one of us found out that prior to moving in, we had asked them if there was a contract to be signed, to which they replied with a 'No, don't worry about it" attitude. This is the least legitimate business practice ever, and yet I was so wrapped up about university life, and the fact that they seemed like such nice people, that I didn't question it. I should have. 

So, lets talk about Soo. Korean girl, super sweet little thing, wouldn't hurt a fly, you know the type. She expressed her desire to leave 3 weeks in advance. One thing lead to another and Steve had sent her  a barage of rude emails, the very last one may have been one of the most racist things I have ever read in my entire life. I won't go into specifics, I'm sure you get the drift, and to add to this ignorance, he had accused her of lying about her financial situation. Charming. Around the same time, Elisa, a Brazillian girl, expressed her desire to leave for the same reasons. Sure enough, an influx of spiteful emails came her way, although funnily enough, they were more ( although not much more) respectful than those sent to Soo.

Now before I go any further, I should make it clear that on arrival, each of us had to pay a $200 key deposit, that was to be returned upon leaving, IF the room we occupied was clean and undamaged. It should also be noted that this wasn't expressed in any form of contract, it was simply in email. (Which all of us have since saved to a USB device.)

Now, although these two rooms were left emaculate upon departure, the $200 was not returned to either of my friends, because they 'broke the contract.' This is where it gets confusing. There was no contract for starters, but the problem now lies in the fact that, it was a 'deposit', not a bond. Now, I'm no real estate proficianado, but according to Steve, this meant that the money didnt HAVE to be returned, they return it out of ' the kindness of their hearts.' 

So as you can imagine, a bad taste has been left in our mouths about the whole situation. Elisa has since filed a complaint with the RTA (With whom Rose and Steve AREN'T EVEN REGISTERED!), who has blocked their advertising on the UQ rentals site. Drama, Drama. 

So, since then we have recieved two new housemates, and Marine, who is actually my best friend in this house, is set to head home to France end of this semester. Which is all well and good. Thing is, her exams finish early, and she has no need to stay the entire month of June, and it's ridiculous that she should have to pay a full months rent, which is upwards of $700 when she is staying for literally a week and a bit of June. Knowing the reaction she would get, she emailed Steve and Rose, and asked them if she could just pay the amount of a week and a half. They told her to pay $350 BY TOMORROW. Clearly this was not only unfair, but a little rude to expect a student, let alone anyone, to pull $350 out of thin air within a few hours notice. So she didn't. Come the first of this month, she only paid the amount of money that calcualted to a week and a half, without telling them. Now, before people start thinking this is starting to sound a little off,  and that perhaps Marine should have been a bit more adult about the whole situation, perhaps she should have just paid the rent and not asked for trouble. This may be, but the reaction of Steve and Rose that followed was unreasonable, and quite frankly, childish. 

On the topic of being childish, and although this may be a terrible linking sentence, Steve and Rose are set to have a child early August. Now, what I have neglected to tell you is that the house boasts a lovely little staircase that links their house (upstairs) to ours (downstairs) which they frequent too often considering that they have their own entrance upstairs. It is an invasion. They are a constant in our lives and said staircase is set to be an even bigger problem. There is no door at the top of it, and as you can imagine when things are loud upstairs we can hear them, and with a screaming child, it is set to get worse.

 I digress, a few days after Marine transferred the amount of money, Steve sent her an email saying that she was to be out by 5pm that day (He had sent it at 11am), and if she wasn't, they would forcibly remove her and her belongings. A complete over reaction. By 5pm Marine had actually brought her friend Dan over because she was honest to God frightened of Steve (He is a big man, morbidly obese, but he could defintly pack a punch) because we know him to be quite volatile, throwing plates upstairs and yelling profanities. 

Part 2 of this Epic rant will be be posted in the coming hours.