The inquest into a fire death makes chilling reading. Two young Asian women were trapped in a fifth floor apartment when fire broke out on it's verandah. Flames and thick smoke drove them into a bedroom and when the fire advanced they were forced to climb out the window and hang onto the frame - with a terrifying drop to the pavement below their only option.
Connie Zhang died from that impact and Yinuo Jang is permanently crippled and will spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. The inquest heard that this almost new building simply did not meet the relevant laws on fire safety - and the apartment they shared had an extra bedroom illegally constructed in a hived off portion of the main living room. What is even more alarming, it seems that this is not unusual and that there are perhaps hundreds of thousands of similar fire traps awaiting victims in Australia.
The unit's landlord gave evidence that he constructed that extra bedroom so that he could charge more for rental and permission was not sought from either the body corporate or the relevant local council. It is perhaps symptomatic of the price elevation of houses and units in Sydney that owners are resorting to all manner of illegality to try and squeeze a few extra dollars from their investment. Councils are uncovering evidence of homes and units being converted into defacto boarding houses with beds crammed into every room and vast numbers of tenants expected to share a single common kitchen and bathroom.
We hear a lot about the difficulty first home buyers have in getting into the market and there is pressure to outlaw negative gearing to stop homes becoming an investment option for those on high salaries, but tinkering with the home finance market would have the unintended consequence of reducing properties available for rental - and we could easily drive rentals out of reach of ordinary people.
It is easy to forget that all those clamouring to become first home buyers are usually living in rented premises and if a law change makes investment housing unattractive it would lead to a sharp decrease in rental stock - and when shortages occur - the rental price rises accordingly. We could see many potential first home buyers shut out of both the ownership and the rental market entirely.
This fire inquest raises the knotty problem to both the government and councils of exercising control over the quality of what is being offered to the renting public. As things stand, there is little chance of an illegal bedroom being detected or a unit being turned into what is really a dormitory unless the number of people coming and going - and the parking of cars in the street - cause offense to neighbours that leads to a complaint.
The Real Estate industry is probably the filter necessary to ensure rental quality, but if tough conditions apply owners of illicit flats would probably simply opt for private rental and avoid agents. It seems to be unclear exactly what powers are in the hands of councils when it comes to inspections and in many cases privacy laws come into conflict with gaining access. It would be easy to require a council inspection and approval of all changes of tenant but most likely councils would impose a hefty charge - and that would impact on both the bond and rent demanded to offset the added cost inflicted on the building owner.
The fact that someone died and that death was probably attributable to building modifications preventing escape brings the issue of altered rental properties to the fore. Most likely the coroner will make a finding and it will pass to a committee to enquire into possible actions. In reality, little will change. This is an issue that had been shoved back into the "too hard " basket by successive governments over a long period of time.
Cleaning up the rental mess will rock too many boats. Fortunately, an actual death is so rare that it is statistically irrelevant !
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