Renting is the most natural choice when you can’t afford to buy your own house (or simply choose not to). I bet almost anyone reading this post right now has had to rent at some point in life. And while renting is supposed to be quite straight forward – you find a suitable house, rent it, move in, and get on with your life – often unexpected things happen which interfere with this process, and throw us off balance.
When you, as a tenant, find yourself in a problematic situation, often you don’t know what your rights are, or who to ask, or what to do.

What can go wrong? Many things. Imagine that…

• A door lock got broken and the landlord won’t get it fixed
• It’s blazing hot, the air conditioning isn’t working, the landlord refuses to fix it
• The plumber doesn’t turn up to deal with the leaking tap
• The neighbours make too much noise and ignore your polite requests to keep it down
• The landlord wants you to pay for fixing things you did not break
• You want out of a bad neighborhood, but have months and moths to go on your lease

I know about all of these problems from my own experience as well as people’s comments on my blog posts about breaking a lease and what rights do tenants have.

So where do you find help?

Even though I personally am not in a position to give legal advice, I know who is.

I’ve made a list of organizations that exist to help tenants in difficult situations. These organizations do it every day all day, and have the experience and the power to advise you, or even to act on your behalf. I personally have contacted some of them in the past, and received sound advice that made it clear where I stood. I encourage anyone who has a problem with tenancy to go ahead and give them a try – often they can do more than you realize.

Help for tenants in Victoria

 Consumer Affairs of Victoria have a whole section on their website dedicated to renting. In addition, they can answer your questions, resolve a dispute, or help you file a complaint. Tenants Union of Victoria can help you by offering free and confidential advice (via their website, email of telephone).

Help for tenants in NSW

 The Office of Fair Trading  is doing a great job helping tenants in difficult situations (you can see some examples of their work in this video). In addition to the information on their website you can call them to get individual advice.

Tenants NSW  provide free, independent advice and advocacy services. They are a non-government organization that receives assistance from the Tenants Union of NSW, and are funded by the NSW Office of Fair Trading.

Help for tenants in QLD

 The RTA (Residential Tenancies Authority) provide information for renters on their website and can be contacted on the phone or via email. They also offer dispute assistance.

The Tenants Union of QLD is a statewide community organization that represents interests of tenants in QLD. They offer tenancy advice through their website, via email or on the phone.

Help for tenants in WA

 Tenants Advice Service in WA is a community legal centre providing advice and information to tenants. In addition to the information on their website you can get advice via email, over the phone or even in person.

Department of Commerce has a Renting section on their website, with some helpful information. You can also lodge a formal consumer protection complaint through them (see form on their website).

Help for tenants in SA

 There is no tenants’ union in South Australia. However, Anglicare runs the Tenants Information and Advocacy Service for people on low incomes. There is also helpful information for tenants on sa.gov.au website.

Help for tenants in Tasmania

Tenants’ Union of Tasmania has a telephone advice line and a face-to-face service. This is a not-for-profit community organization offering free services including tenancy advice, advocacy and referrals.

If you need legal advice, contact the Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania  or the Hobart Community Legal Service. Consumer affairs and Fair Trading in Tasmania has information for tenants on their website.

Help for tenants in ACT

Tenants’ Union ACT has a very helpful website. If you can’t find the answer to your particular question, try the Tenants Advice Service, – you can give them a call, leave your name and number and they will call you back. ACT Office of Fair Trading offers complaint resolution services.

Help for tenants in NT

Tenants’ Advice Service (TAS) is a territory-wide community-based organization. They can advise you on your particular problem, negotiate and advocate on your behalf with the landlord or real estate agent or even help with representation in the local court. You can also contact Consumer Affairs regarding your tenancy issue.

 If you’ve had a problem as a tenant – please tell us in a comment below. If you’ve had the problem resolved, please tell us how. Thank you!

There is nothing worse than feeling claustrophobic in your own home. Many first time property buyers can only afford a small house or apartment to start off with and so space is really precious. Here are my top 4 tips for making your home feel much more spacious.

1. Use light colours in your decorating
If you have small rooms in your home the worst thing that you can do is paint the walls a dark colour. Dark colours look heavy and tend to draw spaces inwards which means that your rooms will look even smaller! You should go for clean, bright and neutral colours such as beiges, mochas, sand and even yellow. These colours reflect the light and will help to open up the space that you do have. This principle is also applicable to your furniture colours. Choosing light shades of wood such as fir or maple will also help to give the appearance space. Avoid dark colours such as ebony or mahogany.

2. Use mirrors

Mirrors have long been used to help give the appearance of space. A large over-mantle mirror will reflect the light from your windows and lamps and make it feel brighter. It will also trick your mind in to thinking that there is more space than there really is. You could even consider using mirror tiles to tile a whole wall. This will not only double the size of your room but also make a real design statement. Another way of introducing mirrors in to a room is by buying cabinets with mirrored doors. Use mirrored coasters on your coffee table and mirrored home accessories such as vases. Unless your creativity and design juices tell you otherwise you do not need to go over the top. A few well-placed mirrors will make a big difference!

3. Clean out the clutter
This is probably the most obvious and inexpensive way of making your home feel more spacious. It is amazing how much clutter we can accumulate over time, most of which we will never actually use again. Set aside some time for a good old spring clean and be ruthless. If you haven’t used it in the past year then you are unlikely to ever need it. Get rid of old magazines, ornaments or anything else that is clogging up your shelves and drawers. Rooms that are full of clutter not only look small but messy too. Once you have done this you should concentrate your cleaning efforts on your windows and fixed surfaces. You will be amazed at how much brighter your room will feel in doing this!

4. Get the right storage solutions
This really does go hand in hand with point number 3. The items that you do decide to keep need to be stored properly. Tidy surfaces with minimal contents will help to make your rooms feel bigger. Invest in some nice looking baskets to go on your shelves to store things like stationary, magazines, keys so that they are not left lying around. For larger items such as children’s toys you can get some plastic boxes with wheels which can be slid under your sofa and out of the way when not in use.
Follow these 4 tips and you will be well on your way to making your home feel spacious and bright!

Written by Vicky Dean

Vicky is a design enthusiast with a passion for modern furniture and innovative design. She likes to support new and independent designers as well as providing interior design related tutorials for people who are on a budget.

In this article I am going to explore the best, inexpensive ways to protect your house from pests.

Most homeowners understand the reasons for protecting their family and their property from insect and animal infestation. Their concern for health dangers to the family and physical damage to their home is justified. Too few homeowners realize the importance of the role they have in the pest-control battle. While professional assistance may eventually be required, the homeowner, as first line of defense has important and effective actions they should take.

Insects and animal pests thrive by taking the easiest route available to their next meal or location for building a new home. That animal behavior pattern is the key to the preventive actions you take as a homeowner. To deny them entry onto your property you simply make the work required to gain entry more difficult and less attractive.

If you are building a home or buying a new one, you have the opportunity to be proactive about termite protection. In these situations it is easy for unscrupulous contractors to take advantage of you. You must beware of claims that proactive termite efforts and treatments have been made, for which there is no proof.

Existing homes are a different situation entirely. Termite infestation can occur in some unexpected places. Rarely is a homeowner capable of determining if a house is really free of infestation in these specific areas. You need special tools and techniques to check the following areas in existing homes:

- Stored timber
- Stored newspaper or cardboard packing
- Dark damp ground level storage areas
- Damp soil above or below ground
- Ground to flooring void areas that are often not accessible
- Retaining walls, especially those with railway sleepers
- Large trees or Bushland close to a home

If you already live in a home, a periodic inspection is vital to protect the value of your home. The longer you delay gives the pests the opportunity they need to move into inaccessible and hard to treat areas. One of the serious dangers of termite infestation is the ability of the pests to hide their presence until it is too late and a structure collapses.

To prevent termite infestations, make sure that there are at least 18 inches of space between any untreated wood framing and soil beneath porches and decks, as well as in crawl spaces. Treating the soil with insecticide and covering the ground with plastic sheeting should do the trick.

All foundation cracks must be sealed. Termites can enter even those as narrow as 1/32 of an inch. To prevent rodents and larger animals from beneath open porches and decks, enclose the space with quarter-inch mesh screening.

Elsewhere, you can just seal joints with caulking compound where siding and trim meet. Also make sure you seal wall openings around pipes, vents and similar items, and install metal rodent guards to keep animals from climbing vertical pipes.

If you want to keep the birds from roosting on downspouts, windowsills and other surfaces, attach anti-roosting strips – metal strips with prongs that prevent birds from alighting.

If you have a problem with squirrels lodging in chimneys, install a screened chimney cap.

To prevent rodents and larger animals from  rifling of garbage cans, they need to have lids that can be secured. They should be stored away from walls, preferably on a platform about 18 inches above ground.

To pest-proof the inside of a house, keep moisture to a minimum and provide adequate ventilation so that dampness and excessive heat are eliminated. Keep surfaces as clean as possible, especially in kitchens, bathrooms, basements and attics.

Signs of infestation outdoors and indoors should be dealt with right away. Termites may construct web-like shelter tubes of soil running from the ground to available openings in the house.

If you find any tubes – break them open. If termites are inside – call an exterminator immediately.

A sign of carpenter ants is coarse sawdust beneath exit holes in damaged wood. Powder-post beetles produce fine sawdust. In all cases, call an exterminator.

Carpenter bees, which resemble bumble bees, can burrow into wood near the roof or above doorways, creating circular holes. You can sometimes get rid of them by spraying an insecticide containing diazinon, carbaryl or pyrethrins into the holes after dark, when the bees will be inside, and then plugging the openings with caulking compound.

Poison sprays, traps and dusts are usually effective indoors against light insect infestations, but please, follow the safety precautions listed on the containers. For heavy infestations call an exterminator.

Keeping a home safe from pests in any part of the world is always a constant battle. In Australia, and especially the Gold Coast area, there are a good number of pests to keep you busy. If you need specific treatments targeted towards the predominant pests in your area – call a pest exterminator.

Written by Michelle Lee

Michelle Lee is an expert in pest prevention. Her long term employment with a pre purchase building inspection company in Australia  can offer great advice that she willingly shares.

This week I’ve read a few interesting articles about what’s happening in the property market – so here is some reading for your weekend:

Property is overvalued by 60% @ News.com.au: A leading US real estate analyst Jordan Wirsz believes Australia is heading towards a property bloodbath as the global economic downturn spreads to China and eventually here. And judging by some comments left by real estate agents they are scared to death people will actually listen to Jordan

Homes failing to hold value @ News.com.au: Apparently, thousands of homes are sitting on the market nation-wide – and Melbourne is the worst offender. There were 43% more unsold homes on the market in Melbourne in December 2011 than in the same month a year ago (and that’s in the most active market!) Why? I guess the vendors are in a deep denial.

Renovation projects: do it yourself or turn it over to the professionals? @ Propertyobserver.com.au: According to Chris Gray, the only part of renovation you can handle if you don’t have plenty of time, skills and experience is the painting but, jokes aside, the article offers some sound advice for people new to DIY reno projects, so is worth reading.

8 ways to lose money on property in 2012 @ Apimagazine.com.au: Michael Yardney is showing the 8 methods of property investing that may look attractive on the outside but can be quite dangerous on the inside.

What’s the most interesting article you’ve read this week?

Home loans are inevitably one of the biggest single household investments. We might complain about school fees, car registration costs or the price of milk going up … but in the end, a little lapse of attention to your home loan and the consequences will be far bigger than all of these extra bills put together!
From little things, big things grow … make sure that your money habits are growing a nice little nest egg, instead or watering and fertilising a major debt, with these quick and handy hints for paying off your home loan sooner!

1. Save a bigger deposit
IF the housing market is stable or moving to a buyer’s markets, wait a little and save a bigger deposit before buying your home. This way YOU’RE earning interest on your savings, instead of paying the bank interest.

2. Choose a smaller lender
Big bank interest rates are often more than those for credit unions or smaller lenders. Look far beyond the big four to make significant home loan savings. However, make sure you use the comparison rate in your research as fees are often higher at these institutions.

3. Basic home loans
Bells and whistles on home loans cost money, and in most cases they are under-used. Start off with no bells and whistles – you can easily upgrade if you really need to.

4. Repay weekly or fortnightly
Your bank will give you a monthly repayment figure — split this into two or four to create a fortnightly or weekly repayment figure, and put the cash in more frequently. Because there are usually 4.3 or 4.5 weeks in a month, you end up repaying a little extra without even realising.

5. Interest calculations
To give you the maximum benefit of extra repayments, you should choose a home loan that recalculates interest on a daily basis rather than a monthly basis.

6. Offset account?
An offset facility lets you park money in your home loan account to decrease the interest, then redraw it when you need to. However, the facility usually comes with a higher interest rate tag. Consider putting your extra money into a term deposit instead, and when it reaches your set amount, pull some out and make a lump sum repayment.

7. Use your rental bond
If you’re moving from a rental property to a mortgaged home, use your rental bond immediately to repay some of your home loan. You haven’t seen the money for some time, so you probably won’t miss it!

8. Ignore rate cuts
RBA cuts interest rates? Don’t rush out to the pub – maintain your old level of repayments and you can cut your home loan without missing any money.

9. DIY home loan maintenance
Get to know your internet banking facility for your home loan, and use it to avoid branch visit charges and other fees.

10. Switch away
If it looks like interest rates will be coming down and staying down, think about switching a fixed rate loan to a variable rate home loan. The switching fee can be minimal compared to your savings in interest.

photo source

Written by Andrew Gloyns

Andrew Gloyns works for ratestonline.com.au – an Australian home loans comparison website.

For all those of you thinking about building a house, or renovating an existing one there’s a nice iPhone app by Home Design Directory, which will help you calculate the costs of your project.
It is most helpful when you know approximately the costs per square meter for each space (bedroom, kitchen, etc.) and you want to juggle the numbers by changing the number of rooms and their areas to see the total cost.
The app has a great help section to help you setup and use the calculator for the most accurate results, and even though they have default settings it is highly advisable to change them so that they would match the costs in your particular area.

This is the main screen of the app:

From here you can go to settings, start calculating, get help, and more.

Worth noting is the “Further Reading” section. It contains links to online articles explaining various home building related topics such as site preparation, floor/wall/roof construction, roofing materials, electrical, and much more.

Moving on to the Builder’s Buddy calculator itself, here’s how it works: when you first open the app, you will need to set up the calculator. On the setup page you will have to choose units of measure (meters or feet), whether your project is building a new home or renovating an existing one, site conditions, various costs (such as garage cost per square meter), and more. If you have trouble with the setup, head straight to the help page – it will explain everything you need to know in simple language.

When finished setting up, you can start calculating the cost of your project. Here is the calculator:

What you see on the screenshot above is only part of the items that you can customise. Scrolling down you will get entries for bedrooms, laundry, storage spaces, other rooms, indoor circulation, garages, and verandahs.

As you can see from the screenshot, for each entry you can change the quantity (let’s say you want to have two bathrooms) and the area of that space. To change simply tap on arrows – the estimated cost will increase or decrease automatically after each tap. Or tap-and-hold to accelerate the rate at which the values increase or decrease.

There is one issue though – if, for example, you want to have two bathrooms, each bathroom being different size – you can’t. The app creator’s solution is to use an average size, which in my opinion is fine, because this calculator is intended to give you an estimate on your project and not its exact cost.

Check out the cost estimate at the top right corner, and you will see it changing when you change the parameters. This is a very convenient way to see how much will adding, let’s say, a second bathroom or another garage cost you.

In conclusion, even though a bit pricey at $4.49 it is a nice tool to have when planning to build a new home or renovate. You can download Builder’s Buddy calculator from the Apple store directly to your mobile device.

What are your killer tips to estimate building or renovating costs?

The wild weather lately serves as a good reminder about the precautions we need to take to make our homes and yards safe. With winds as high as 100 km/h, trees that are close to powerlines become a real issue.

When trees or branches are touching a live powerline they create a threat to people and may cause an emergency. Power failure or even a bushfire are possible consequences of such contact. Also in hot weather trees dry out and so the danger increases.

Many home owners or tenants think that energy distributors are the ones responsible for trimming trees around powerlines – but this is not 100% correct.

Energy suppliers are responsible for servicing the powerlines and poles on public property, and they carry out regular inspections to reduce the risk of fire ignition or power failure. But keeping a safety clearance between any trees growing on the property you own or rent and the private supply line is your responsibility. A private supply line is the powerline on your property, supplying electricity to your house.

Trimming trees near overhead powerlines is dangerous – which is why there are rules and regulations (such as minimum distance, vertical and horizontal, between you/your tools and the powerline). Since you may not know these rules, it is best to get a professional arborist to carry out the trimming. Or, if you’re a sworn DIY’er, stay at least 3 meters away from the powerline at all times.

To take this one step further, if you intend to plant trees on your property, think about how tall and wide the tree will grow, and whether or not it will touch the overhead powerline – prevention is better than cure.

Have you ever had a problem with power caused by a tree?

When moving into a new house, or just wanting to change the interior design of your home, you need to plan first, before beginning to move the furniture around. Of course you can draw a simple sketch by hand, but in that case maintaining furniture-to-room ratio would be a pain, and you would have to create a separate sketch for your every arrangement.

If you happen to have an iPad then you’re in luck because there’s a great application for interior space planning named “Mark On Call HD” (available for $1.99 at Apple Store). Using this app you can specify your room dimensions and shape (not all rooms are rectangular!) and then fill it with furniture, appliances, and other household-related items. Then you can rearrange them to suit your liking, add new items or remove existing ones. Important feature is that you can change the dimensions of the items to match reality.

Here is what the app looks like:

In the “DESIGN” section you have all your designs, shopping lists, and settings.
Shopping lists is a nice feature – when creating your design you can assign a price to the items that you place in the room and then add these items to a shopping list. This way you are not only planning your design but also your budget. In the Settings you are able to change between US and metric units.

The the “LEARN” section is not very elaborate but it gives you some useful tips.

Here is an example of loft design created using this app:

And another one of a living room:

All the items that you can see in the examples above can be moved around, rotated, and have their color and dimensions changed.

There are two things that bother me though:

First is the missing ability to duplicate an item after you placed it inside your design. Currently, if for example you need 6 chairs for your dining table, you will need to go six times into the object library to get all the chairs. It would be much quicker and easier to get one chair out and then duplicate it.

Second is the way you move the objects around – in order to move the object you need to tap on it and hold (about 1 second) until the object becomes semi-transparent, and then you can move it. I was always trying to move objects without this “waiting period”, which is more intuitive.

But overall this application is very helpful and fun to work with, and for $1.99 I consider it a bargain!

P.S. The same application is also available for iPhone – but iPhone’s screen is way too small for it, in my opinion.

Do you have a favorite app or software for home design?

Merry Christmas to the readers of ‘Home I Own’!

Thanks for returning here for this whole year, and for spending your precious time at Homeiown.com.

We wish you happy celebrations, relaxing holidays, enjoyable family reunions, and nice surprises under the tree!

Looking forward to welcoming you back, when you’re done partying and are back to house-hunting again

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With best wishes of peace, love and happiness,

Chris Lang and the team @ Homeiown.com

Rising energy costs and higher electricity bills have caused many people reconsider their Christmas lights. Can you blame them? If circumstances make a person choose between having the lights display and buying presents for the kids, the outcome is quite predictable.

Traditional Christmas lights are expensive, and it’s not just because the light bulbs themselves cost a lot – but because of the electricity they consume when left on for 12 hours, every night throughout December and a part of January.

So how about some untraditional Christmas lights? There are alternatives to the energy-hungry vampires, you know.

Idea #1 – Christmas lights powered by solar energy

With this kind of lights you can “have your cake and eat it too” – you can switch on the lights and not pay a cent for electricity. There are rechargeable batteries that store energy from the sun, accumulated by a small solar panel, included with the lights. In the recent years solar stuff developed so well that the charging the battery during the day will keep the lights on all night.

Any IKEA fans in the audience? I knew you’d be there nice to meet some like-minded people. I also know there will be some opposition, well, that’s the thing about IKEA – people either love it or hate it. But hold the hate for a moment, before you see the photos – you may like the lights regardless of the store that sells them.

These beautiful lights are solar-powered, LED based – so they will serve you longer, and there’s no need to stretch meters of cables to plug them in. You can read more about them here.

Or, if you like lighting-tubes better than globes, have a look at the photo below:

You can get 4.5 meters of this lighting tube, place the solar panel where sun can reach it, and enjoy the Christmassy look of your house without the cost.

Idea #2 – Christmas LED lights

If you’re not big on solar, consider LED lights to save on electricity. They are bright; their lifetime is approximately 20,000 hours (enough for about 55 Christmases!) and they consume up to 85% less energy than incandescent light bulbs.

Plus they look very nice

These below are snowflakes with suction cups that will hold the light chain on a window:

And these LED snowflakes can be used indoor or outdoor in a similar manner to any traditional lights:

P.S. IKEA did not sponsor this post. I simply liked the ideas – and the lights!

What is your favorite kind of Christmas lights?

Photo source