NSW real estate agents threaten renters with fees if they are not home for tradespeople – but legally they don't have to be

The Guardian

6 days ago

New South Wales real estate agents are threatening renters with fees as high as $330 if they are not at home to let maintenance workers in, despite there being no legal requirement for renters to personally allow entry.
On 8 July, Lauren Gillin's agency told her she needed to be home during a two-and-a-half-hour window seven days from that date to allow access for a smoke alarm inspector or pay a $90 fee.
'Please make yourself available, this inspection is compulsory, and access must be provided,' Gillin's property manager at Rich & Oliva said in a letter seen by Guardian Australia.
'Should access not be made available, a fee of $90 will be incurred for re-inspection.'
In a statement, a NSW Fair Trading spokesperson said real estate agents must provide two days' notice for 'non-urgent repairs or inspection of a smoke alarm'.
However, 'there is no requirement for the tenant to be in the property for the inspection,' the spokesperson confirmed.
Further, 'the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (NSW) limits fees and charges a landlord or agent can ask a tenant to pay, with only certain payments such as rent, rental bond and other prescribed fees allowed to be charged'.
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Gillin, a media manager at a community legal centre who lives in Haberfield in Sydney's inner west, said she was disappointed by the letter.
'It's an unreasonable request to be home for 2.5 hours on a weekday.'
Tenants of an apartment block in the city's eastern suburbs received a similar notice from a different real estate agency, which Guardian Australia has chosen not to identify because renters said they were worried about the potential consequences.
That agency wrote to the tenants in June, in an email seen by Guardian Australia, telling them they needed to be home on a day late that month between 9.30am and 10.30am for a mandatory fire safety inspection.
The email warned that any failure to give access to the home would result in a re-inspection fee of $330 and advised the tenants to organise someone on their behalf to allow access if they could not do so.
The Tenants' Union of NSW chief executive officer, Leo Patterson Ross, said the $90 charge Gillin faced did not 'strictly have any basis' because the agent or landlord could still give access to the smoke alarm inspector by organising entry.
'As long as the tenant hasn't actively prevented them from entering the property, then there's no basis for that charge,' he said.
Patterson Ross said the $330 fee faced by residents of the eastern suburbs apartment block was 'pretty much the exact same situation' – there was no legal basis for the charge.
'The agent, probably, in a building like that where there's a lot of people, they don't want to spend their whole day walking around all the apartments,' he said. 'But there's nothing stopping them from doing that.'
Patterson Ross said more than 2,100 people contacted the tenants' union in 2024 for advice about access issues.
He said he regularly spoke to renters who had been threatened with fees for supposedly not allowing access to their homes, who assumed the charges were legitimate.
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'No one's told the agent they can't do it and it becomes normal and then they train other people and it becomes process without anyone really checking whether it's compliant with the law,' Patterson Ross said.
'Generally, a lot of the pressure of enforcing the legislation is falling on the tenant at the moment.'
Gillin said she tried to raise her concerns with one of the Rich & Olivia staff members, but did not feel the issue was resolved. The company did not respond to Guardian Australia's request for comment.
On 8 July, Gillin lodged a complaint with the agency.
In the email, seen by Guardian Australia, Gillin said her experience with the agency had otherwise 'been really positive' which made the letter she got from them 'all the more surprising'.
She followed up on 9 July, citing legal advice she had received from the tenants' union and the NSW rental commissioner, Trina Jones, that she did not need to be at home during a smoke alarm inspection.
Jones told Guardian Australia that a fee for not being present during a smoke alarm inspection could not legally be passed on to tenants.
She said the state's rental taskforce – which was created earlier this year – contacted Gillin's agent to advise them of their responsibilities under the law and make clear the charge was not permitted.
'Illegal fees and charges remain an issue in the sector,' Jones said. 'Since January, the Rental Taskforce has overseen refunds of $165,303 to renters who were charged unlawful fees.'
On Wednesday, Gillin said the smoke alarm technician let her know they had got a key from the agency to let themselves into the property.
But she said the agency still had not responded to her complaint.