A single mum and business owner has revealed the surprising response she got from landlords and property agents after tragically losing her husband to a rare form of cancer.
And it’s left her stuck in a $1000 per week rental that she says is far larger than she needs.
Young mum Kayla Psaradellis said she discovered that property agents were imposing an unwritten requirement when she began looking for rentals and it’s left her and her two-year-old child at a disadvantage.
“What I noticed was I felt like they were looking for an undisclosed criteria of what they wanted … I don’t think a single mum is on that list,” she said. “It’s preferred to be in a two income household, looking like you’re a stable family unit rather than a single mum.”
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Kayla with her two year old son.
On top of that, there was the issue of rent bidding, Ms Psaradellis said.
“People are offering extra a week on what was advertised, so it was really hard to know what to offer and there was a ridiculous number of people out the door so I just thought, ‘should I even bother?’ ” she said.
Ms Psaradellis has been a business owner for 10 years, running her own beauty salon, and has started a new venture Married Now Widowed, supporting wives through loss and fundraising for cancer research.
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“I have my own business so I have a very stable income and I can afford the rent even though I don’t have a partner in the house.”
She said during one rental application, a property manager asked her if she had anyone else she could put on the lease.
Ms Psaradellis said she struggled to find a new rental after her husband passed due to only having one income.
“I thought, ‘do you want me to lie?’, ‘who do you want me to put on?’ It’s just me, but I do have the financial documents to offer …
“Compared to a couple, both with full time jobs, it’s really hard for someone like me, but I can’t really lie and put someone on the lease.”
After the struggle of finding a new home, Ms Psaradellis decided to stay in the same rental. She is paying $1000 a week for a four-bedroom home for her and her son, and although she could afford the rent, she felt like she didn’t need as much space.
“I have a two an a half year old – it is frustrating paying $1,000 a week,” she said.
On top of facing difficulty securing a new rental, her neighbours who lived in the other duplex next to her were paying $50 a week less, despite having the same landlord.
She approached the landlord to see if they would be open to putting the rent to the same as the neighbours.
“They know I lost my husband two years ago. I’ve never asked for anything. I pay $250 a fortnight to get the house professionally cleaned. I just fix things myself … I love my house and look after it. All they said was ‘well look in the area. You’re lucky to be paying $1000’.”
CEO of the NSW Tenants Union said the rental competition framework is biased against single parents. Picture: Richard Dobson
Experts revealed that single parents being disadvantaged in rental applications was a growing trend – especially in the tight rental markets in major capitals.
CEO of the NSW Tenants Union Leo Patterson Ross said rental properties shouldn’t be something landlords and property agents control access to.
“It isn’t an optional or luxury good, but we treat it like it is. Renting is an essential service – you need this,” he said.
“We have this competition framework and minimise the risk for landlords. We need to shift from that. Ideally we should be assessing people on ‘can this person afford the property?’ – and if you accept that and there’s no concern with that, then you need a good reason to say no.
“All you need to say (currently) is there was a better applicant – subconsciously it means these bias creeps in.”
Ms Psaradellis said she’d be “terrified” if someone currently kicked her out.
Mr Patterson Ross said a lottery or first in, first serve would help renters and remove the bias of landlords or agents.
Ms Psaradellis said reform and policy needed to change to make sure renters all have an equal opportunity.
“If we can provide the financial documents that back us up, everything else shouldn’t matter,” she said. “(Landlords have) got such power – and we get scared as renters we don’t want to complain too much,” she said.
She used rental agent and advocate, Sarah Elkordi of the Rent Fairy to find her current rental nearly five years ago and said there was “so much instability in the rental market”.
“It’s scary for someone like myself. I’m a single mum with a young baby. If they told me in two months you have to get out of here, I would be terrified.”
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