‘Unbearable’: Renters record their homes’ temperatures to prove they’re unliveable

In the blistering heat of summer or the cold depths of winter, is your home liveable? Many Australians have experienced rental accommodation that seems ill-suited for the climate — in some cases feeling hotter or colder than the weather outside.

A pro-renter advocacy group wants to find out just how common this is by tracking the temperature and humidity of rental homes across the country and the experiences of those who live in them.

Better Renting is an organisation started five years ago in the ACT that works to promote policy changes for “stable, affordable and healthy homes”. 

Executive director Joel Dignam said Australians were sicker and poorer as a result of living in low-quality rented homes. Tenants have to pay higher electricity costs, have worse sleep and suffer more from illnesses such as asthma as a result of living in homes that don’t adequately protect them from the elements.

Two years ago, the group launched a citizen science project, Renter Researchers, that provides participants with devices to record data from their rentals every minute in winter or summer. Combined with interviews with renters, Better Renting collates this data to understand what it’s like to live in rentals. 

Predictably, Dignam said, the group has repeatedly found that many participants live in substandard rented accommodation.

“Nobody is surprised that their house is hot, but sometimes they’re surprised by the extremes that they get to,” he told Crikey.

“It’s striking when you realise you have the coldest rental in the group. We had someone get to 5 degrees inside their house in Canberra in the last group. In summer, it’s not only the maximum temperature but also how long some of these houses stay in the ranges. We had someone in Melbourne who lived in a loft [apartment] whose bedroom, according to the data, was constantly unbearable.” 

The data is then shared widely with politicians, public servants and other advocacy groups.

Although Dignam concedes that policy moves slowly — ”the wheels move slowly” — he said there are benefits for the individuals involved. The group encourages participants to contact their local and state politicians with this information as well as their landlords. And while they’ve seen limited results with private owners, Dignam said there has been some success getting air-conditioning and other changes made to social housing.

Australia’s tight rental market and the expectation of a hot few months after two relatively mild seasons meant Dignam is particularly interested to see data from this summer. 

“Part of what we’ve been hearing more and more is that renters who experience wild temperature fluctuations don’t have anywhere else to go,” he said. “The idea that a renter will go out with a checklist is absurd. People take what they get.

“I think it’s so important to document what is going to be a bad summer.”

Applications for this summer’s cohort closes on Friday.