A Perth woman has been given a handwritten note telling her that, after seven years in her home, her lease will be terminated because the owner is “taking a different direction” with the property.

But Norelle Robinson believes the eviction is a retaliation after she spoke out about issues with the rental on Nine News Perth in October.

Norelle Robinson has been handed a handwritten note telling her she will be evicted from her Perth home.

“He’s just rocked up at my door, like he always does, there is never any privacy, and just handed me this note,” she said.

“We have been dealing with things happening in our private lives and so financially we are pretty barren, we can’t afford to move anywhere else right now. I have no idea what we are going to do.”

Robinson said her family had needed to self-fund repairs and mould issues and that they were looking at other properties, but were faced with 60-plus people at each one, paired with skyrocketing rents.

“About two weeks after I went on TV [the owner] asked if I had, and I told him yes,” she said.

“He was pretty quiet, and I said I did it because nothing was being fixed. I told him he should get a property manager if he was struggling on his own, it is not up to the tenants to fix things.

“Now he has evicted us — after seven years you would think if he had a problem he would have communicated it before now … he has threatened evictions before but never gone through with it.

“And the added insult of asking the carpets be professionally cleaned, they certainly weren’t when we moved in, we cleaned them.“

She is not alone in being evicted for what she claims is no reason.

Renters across Perth say they are facing evictions or threats of eviction, a lack of communication and willingness to fix issues, and rising weekly rents.

A survey, run through Make Renting Fair WA, has found almost one in four respondents received a notice of eviction within the past 12 months.

Renter Jackie Mellor signed a five-year lease but 2½ years into it the owner told her they were selling, and she had “until the house sold” to move out.

She said she had had a discussion with the owner about needing to stay at her home long-term when she first moved in, so she could take her son, who lives with autism, to school on time every day after coming home from working night shift just after 8am.

“We also had to increase our rent from $410 per week to $550. That additional cost has meant we needed to cut back on luxuries and with Christmas coming up, it has been stressful,” she said.

“Luckily, two months into looking the home hadn’t sold, and we went to view a property that was a last-minute listing — there were only five other people there. I had my application in 30 seconds after leaving.”

Those like Mellor face rental prices at a record high, according to the latest Domain Rental Report released in October.

“We may not own it, but it is still our home and I think they can forget that,” Mellor said.

“I think they also forget how hard it can be to find a new place to feel like home. So many places we viewed were in terrible condition, with mould and ripped carpets, basically unlivable, for such a high price.”

Another renter Leanne, who wanted her last name withheld, was recently forced to decide to move after her landlord refused to deal with a severe mould problem and flooding in the garage when it rained.

They refused to do the maintenance even after putting her rent up from $440 to $480 per week.

“I firmly believe they want me out as they are not willing to fix these issues as they are too expensive, and they know I will keep complaining,” she said.

“I first brought these maintenance issues to the real estate agent’s attention on April 19.

“They are just going to try and rent this place out for a higher rent putting other people into this toxic environment, it’s disgusting.”

After viewing 42 homes and applying for 19, Leanne finally secured another place — but did not put her current landlord down as a reference in fear they would give her a bad one for speaking up.

While the Make Renting Fair survey is ongoing, the initial findings showed many renters were concerned about the consequences of asking for maintenance and others were ignored when requesting repairs, with 39 per cent stating they had to pay or fix things themselves.

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