‘My daughter couldn’t start school’: Sydney family rejected for 35 rental homes despite $1,000-a-week budget

Vivien Pailas, her husband Simon and five-year-old daughter Georgia recently moved to Australia from the UK. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Vivien Pailas has one piece of advice for anyone hunting for a rental property in Sydney: “Lower your expectations.”

Pailas relocated back to Australia in February with her British husband, Simon Myall, and her five-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Georgia, after 15 years living in London. She didn’t expect it would take 35 house inspections and a rental agent to secure her family a home.