Renters are being forced to live in sweltering conditions, with homes recording inside temperatures 3C hotter than outside across the summer, a new report from Better Renting has revealed.
Summer temperatures inside 109 rental homes across the country were tracked from December to February this year, as part of the organisation’s Renter Researchers citizen-science project. The report found renters across Australia were experiencing a median indoor temperature of 25C, meaning homes were above this level 50% of the time.
The World Health Organization’s recommended safe limit is no higher than 25C for more than nine hours a day.
Last December, Lorena Alvarez’s rental in Deception Bay, Queensland hit 36C at 2pm. The unit, which she shares with her partner and two-year-old child, is “old and very poorly insulated”, she said.
There are gaps around the windows and doors. They have an old air-conditioner in their child’s room and a portable one in their bedroom – if they turn them off the house heats within minutes, she said.
“We went from $150 to nearly $300 electricity a month in summer, because we rather pay than suffer, outside it’s always cooler than inside the house, that we sometimes go to the shopping centre just to get out of there,” Alvarez said.
She said the couple were afraid of asking “for too much” and being evicted. Despite the couple investing in bamboo sheets to keep them cool, she said her partner slept on the floor occasionally as their bed gets too hot.
“It’s just horrible,” she said.
The report found in New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia, homes were hotter than the outdoors more than one-third of the time. In NSW for example, it was hotter outdoors 42.5% of the time; in such times it would average 25.4C outdoors, but 28.4C indoors.
The Better Renting deputy director, Bernie Barrett, said the report pointed to the need for action to lift the standard of rental homes.
“Everyone needs a healthy home – governments should require landlords to make changes so that rental homes are fit and healthy to live in through summer,” Barrett said.
“Simple changes like ceiling insulation, fly screens, or ceiling fans, can help reduce the danger from extreme indoor heat. Renters who have been facing record increases should, at the very least, have a decent home for them and their children.”
In NSW, homes were above 25C for more than 12 hours a day on average, with almost one hour a day above 30C. The state also had the worst humidity, with renters spending half their time above 65% humidity, and the highest maximum humidity – 95% – recorded.
Queensland was the hottest state on record, with rental homes averaging 50% of the time above 28.2C, also experiencing high average humidity (64.4%). Daily, about six hours were above 30C, and night-time temperatures exceeded 25C for 86% of the time.
As WA sweltered under what was predicted to be its hottest summer on record, homes averaged 16 hours a day above 25C, with an average median temperature of 26.3C.
In the Northern Territory, only two hours a day were less than 25C on average, with more than eight hours cracking 30C indoors.
Currently, only the ACT and Victoria have minimum rental standards related to energy performance, with Victoria planning to expand existing standards this year to cover ceiling insulation and cooling appliances. Barrett said other jurisdictions need to “step up” and follow suit.
“We also see this common fear of retaliation,” Barrett said. “Which is no surprise: in many jurisdictions, a renter can be kicked out without the landlord needing to provide any justification, and renters fear this retaliation.
“Jurisdictions should be ending unfair ‘no grounds’ terminations so that renters have some chance of advocating for themselves.”
