By Yuko Narushima
ROGUE landlords in Marsfield in Sydney's north west are piling as many as 20 students into shoddily converted family homes, demanding cash in hand and advance notice of visitors to avoid detection by authorities, international students say.
Some landlords are offering cut-price accommodation to female students in return for sex, while others have been the subject of a six-month investigation in relation to other crimes.
Slum living ... Philipa and a friend paid $200 to share a room.Credit: Nick Moir
The NSW Minister for Citizenship and Communities, Victor Dominello, said mock boarding houses had sprung up close to universities across Sydney. He is proposing laws to regulate them. About 300 operate in his electorate of Ryde with more in Parramatta, Burwood, Strathfield and the city, he said.
''They board up the bedrooms, the dining rooms and the garages so instead of a three-bedroom house for a family of five, you've got a three-bedroom house that's transformed into a fifteen-room boarding house. That's where it's just not right,'' he said. ''The kids are being exploited.''
House of horrors ... Philipa's student housing in North Ryde.Credit: Nick Moir
International students were particularly vulnerable because many were unaware of their rights and had limited English, Mr Dominello said.
Landlords evaded council regulations by doing their own conversions without approval. The converted houses often lacked locks, fire alarms, illuminated exit signs, rubbish bins and safe electrical wiring, he said.
Chinese students, who spoke to the Herald on the condition of anonymity, said rental contracts were often verbal.
''You have to keep your contract for six months. If you move out, you lose your money. It's not a paper contract,'' a 20-year-old male accounting student at Macquarie University said.
Philipa's house could not be secured.Credit: Nick Moir
Safety was a constant issue, with students unsure of who lived in overcrowded houses and unable to lock the doors, he said.
The executive director of campus experience at Macquarie University, Deidre Anderson, said it could provide emergency accommodation and could help find suitable homes.
''For many international students, they are finding their accommodation before they get here,'' Ms Anderson said.
Redfern Legal Centre said students had been propositioned by landlords for sex and stripped of bonds upon moving out.
''We've had a situation where students were requested to have photographs taken of them,'' the chief executive, Joanna Shulman, said. Female students from Asia were pressured by their landlord to pose for photos for a modelling agency three floors above. Once upstairs they were asked to pose for pornographic images.
''They didn't feel as though they could say no,'' Ms Shulman said.
It was also common for intermediaries to rent homes they would then rent to students at inflated prices, she said. Students are not protected by the law if they live with the head tenant and fail to obtain a written tenancy agreement. Even when they are protected by law, students cannot always contact their landlords, she said.
''Most students move into accommodation without necessarily knowing who the landlord is,'' she said. ''We've had numerous situations where students have been given fake names and addresses in relation to the landlords. They decide to leave the property and try to contact the landlord to get their bond back and are unable to do so and are left without recourse.''
Yuko Narushima is the Herald's Higher Education Correspondent