A Melbourne real estate agency has emailed tenants to say that “eviction season” has arrived, warning them that agents will have the “difficult” and “unfortunate job” of removing them if they miss payments due to Christmas spending.
The agency on Tuesday apologised for the email, which one tenant had described as “jaw dropping” and “awful” given an ongoing cost-of-living crisis and skyrocketing rents in the city that the agency is based.
The email, sent by Professionals Taylors Lakes on Monday afternoon, began by telling tenants: “Christmas is a fantastic time of year and also a very busy time!”
But the tone of the email quickly changed.
“Christmas time is also known in property management circles as ‘eviction season’ as so many people choose to use their rental payments for Christmas spending instead of ensuring that their family accommodation remains [their] top priority over this period,” the email said.
The email said the firm had seen many tenants fall behind in rent payments over the Christmas period and then struggle to recover financially.
“We then have a difficult time with the unfortunate job of having to remove and evict these tenants from their homes,” the email said.
The email, which was shared on social media by the state Greens MP Aiv Puglielli and verified by Guardian Australia, contained this line in bold: “We find this action very unpleasant for everyone concerned and we all enjoy our Christmas much less because of it.”
The email urged people to pay careful attention to their finances throughout December and January and to ensure that “you pay your rent on time, every time”.
“We ask this so that your living arrangements are not jeopardized over this festive season. We wish you and your family a great Christmas and New Year,” the email said.
Similar emails have been sent by other property management firms, including in New Zealand, where one agent said the email was sent annually to remind people about their rent payment.
When contacted for comment, a manager at the real estate agency declined to respond to questions about the email. He threatened action against anyone who “dispersed the email in spite of what it was intended for”.
When asked what sort of action he was talking about, he said he was not at liberty to say.
“Be really careful in how you are treating it,” he said. “I will exercise my rights under a normal civil case. Everyone has rights with how emails are dispersed. That’s normal civil law.”
The agency subsequently apologised to tenants and sought to assure them that “the intention of the email was to provide a timely reminder about normal tenancy obligations”.
“We would like to firstly apologize to you in advance if you took any offence to the message in the email,” an email sent on Tuesday afternoon said. “We can understand how the choice of words in the email may have offended you in anyway and for this we are sorry.
The national chief executive of Professionals Real Estate, Katherine Gonzalez-Cork, said she was made aware of the email on Tuesday morning and that it was not endorsed by her or the board.
“[It] does not represent our company’s expectations of communication with our property renters. On behalf of the Professionals, I wish to apologise to the recipients of the email,” Gonzalez-Cork said.
One tenant who received the original email, who asked not to be named, said it had read like a “veiled threat”.
“My jaw just dropped to the floor about how completely insensitive it was,” the tenant said.
“People right now, in the middle of a rental crisis, have an elevated level of stress in a period of financial insecurity”.
Another Victorian Greens MP, Gabrielle de Vietri, said her party had been contacted by a constituent who was upset after receiving the email.
“Housing is a human right and everyone should feel secure in their home,” de Vietri said.
“But with the cost-of-living through the roof and rents at record highs many renters across the state will be worried about making it through the Christmas season.”
