Rental Advisory Service expands

The Rental Advisory Service is broadening its reach to support current and incoming students of ACU. Feel free to refer any current or incoming students with accommodation enquiries to this service.

Student Engagement and Services through the Living and Learning Communities team launched the Rental Advisory Service last year to triage calls for support from students suffering the impacts of the response to COVID-19 pandemic.

At the time, the Rental Advisory Service provided immediate assistance, predominantly to international students, to:

• negotiate a rent reduction with their landlord
• relocate to safe and more affordable accommodation
• contact their agent/landlord on their behalf (to reduce any language barriers)
• assist with applications for state government rental grants
• develop a Centrelink guide for domestic students to understand support payments available.

As the service continued to assist students past the peak of the pandemic, it became evident that many students were experiencing common, pre-existing issues such as:

• being overcharged rent
• not having an existing rental agreement in place
• an uneven distribution of charges for utilities costs
• tenants subletting rental properties to students without the landlord’s knowledge.

The Rental Advisory Service has used the learnings of 2020 to produce a comprehensive range of resources and support which will be promoted through a series of videos.

Watch the first in the series. It provides information and guidance to both international and domestic current or incoming students, and helps them to identify safe and legitimate accommodation options near to their campus.

Videos to promote two other support services which the Rental Advisory Service provides will be released in the coming weeks. These will outline guidance to students who are currently renting privately and would like to know more about their rights as a tenant in order to resolve any issues appropriately, as well as tips for being a good housemate, including budgeting, cleaning and how to access cheap, easy and delicious meal ideas.

Contact us

Feel free to refer any students with accommodation enquiries to the Rental Advisory Service webpage or via email .