As a hot spot for international education, Australia currently plays host to more than 20,000 students hailing from Thailand. The opportunity to study in Australia can be a life-changing one, but a range of students have told SBS Thai their experience in Australia has been marred by the students finding themselves in exploitative accommodation.
As foreign students, many of these Thais are unaware of the ins and outs of the Australia rental market, and say they were exploited by unethical landlords and head tenants who placed them in overly expensive, crowded and unhygienic apartments, with some even having their bonds unlawfully confiscated.
As a vulnerable, non-English speaking community, many of these students are unaware of their legal rights in Australia, and accept these conditions as normal, suffering in silence.
Looking for a home
Finding affordable accommodation in the right location in Australia's big cities is not easy for international students, let alone everyday Australians. Most Thai students find their rental properties online, often via Thai-language social media, such as the messaging service LINE or on Facebook.
In these cases, Thai students tend to engage with the head tenant of an apartment about a rental agreement and payments without knowing their identity, name or address. Pia*, a student in Melbourne, has been through this process and says most of these agreements are made on a verbal basis.
"We had communication through a chat application for a room inspection," she says. "Once I agreed to rent the room, we talked about the rental contract. I needed to pay the rent upfront, including bond. Usually, this is done in a verbal form rather than a written contract.”
A sample of rental advertising in Thai which appears on social media platforms Source: SBS Thai
Overcrowded conditions
The CBDs of Australian cities are normally the first preference when Thai students are looking for places to live because of their proximity to universities, schools and work.
But, once the students move into the flat, they often discover an overcrowded apartment and have little option but to accept those circumstances due to financial constraints.
Thai student Arin* says what she found when she moved into the apartment was not like what she had seen in the inspection.
"When we just arrived and had no extra income, we just got anything that would suit our financial situation," she says. "It seemed there weren’t many people when we went for an inspection. I had no idea how many people lived there.”
Another student called Fah* describes the conditions of living in a tiny and overcrowded space:
Rental advertisement images on Thai social medias. Source: Supplied
"That tiny apartment had two bedrooms and one bathroom, but there were 11 people - men and women - living in it. The head tenant used plastic partitions to divide the living room into small rooms. Those rooms are about 1.5 metres wide with a single mattress and a small cupboard in it.”
She also says there were frustrating issues with use of the apartment's facilities and hygiene with so many people living in the flat.
"A main issue of living there was the bathroom. We needed to allocate a time slot for each person. The other problem is cooking and general cleanliness.”
The price some need to pay
The costs of the apartment rental are also higher than average rates in those cities. For example, in Sydney's CBD, a current median price for rental accommodation is around $500-800 per week but these students paid almost twice that price.
“We paid $760 for a master room which was shared with three other students and there were three people in the second bedroom and then four people in the living room paying $160 to $180 each,” says Fah of the apartment shared by 11 people.
In Melbourne's CBD the rental prices are less than in Sydney, but Thai students say they also pay a hefty price for less space than the market average. The average price of renting a simple one-bedroom apartment hovers between $350 to $480 per week in Melbourne, but Arin says she and four other students all paid $160 per person to fit into one small, shared space.
The issues with the use of facilities and hygiene are the main problem in living in a small space with many people. Source: Supplied
Bye bye, bond
Bond retention, or the unwarranted confiscation of bonds, is also one of the most common issues encountered by Thai students. Language barriers and a lack of knowledge about their legal rights placed these students in a highly vulnerable position in such circumstances.
Pia says her bond was taken without proper justification, and she was even charged more on top of the bond by her apartment's head tenant.
"When the agency found out that there were too many people living in the property, we lost all our bonds to the head tenant because he blamed us for that. We also needed to repay a cleaning bill as well. After all that, I had no money left and nowhere to live."
Besides losing money, some students also face intimidation and harassment from their apartment's head tenants, affecting them physically and mentally.
Fah says she was forced into paying extra money to her head tenant, after he threatened her with legal action.
"After a conflict happened, he called and texted me and intimidated me, saying if I don't accept his deal, he will send someone to get me. He said he knows a solicitor, he is an Australian citizen and he can do anything he wants with me."
What students must know
Sean Stimson, a solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre in Sydney, says there are some basic things international students should make themselves aware of when seeking accommodation, with similar legal protections existing across all Australian jurisdictions.
"You must have a written contract. You must know the name of the person you are renting from. You must get a receipt for your bond or security deposits that you have paid. That would be a minimum thing you would need to do because, without that, it is incredibly difficult to pursue a claim through NCAT, the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal."
If students think they’ve been treated unfairly, Sean Stimson suggests they lodge a complaint and seek legal advice.
"If they felt it was unfair, then they would go to NCAT. That's where they would bring their claim. There is the cheapest way to recover the bond. In the first instance, I would always say write the letter to the landlord demanding the money be paid back, giving the reason why the money should pay back within the time frame. And if it doesn't happen, then they can seek some legal advice through legal aid services which completely free service to all international students who experience tenancy issues in NSW."
"We are trying to get the message out to the international student community that the laws of New South Wales and Australia apply to international students," says Stimson. "You cannot be exploited in a tenancy and you cannot be exploited in your workplace. The same laws are there to protect international students as they are there for their domestic counterparts.”
Sean Stimson, a head solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, NSW Source: Supplied
*Names changed to protect identities
