Woman Shares Unhinged Apartment Listing Where Landlord Bans Sleepovers

As housing gets progressively harder to find, people tend to bite the bullet and lower their standards. Smaller rooms, worse amenities, and other issues are all ignored in the service of “having a place to stay.” But what are tenants really willing to give up in exchange for accommodation?

A TikToker went viral when she shared an Australian apartment listing where the landlord banned overnight guests. Netizens questioned the landlord's entitlement and made some humorous comments about potential future situations in this apartment.
More info: TikTok

As a country consisting of various states, Australian laws, to some extent, can vary depending on where you live. What a landlord can and can’t do can be drastically different in one territory or another. For example, the sometimes controversial question of pet ownership in a rental property.

In the Australian Capital Territory (a very dramatic name, often shortened to ACT,) all tenants are, in theory, entitled to have a pet. However, landlords can still ban them if they can demonstrate “reasonable grounds” for it. As anyone who has dealt with a landlord will tell you, they can and will search high and low for those grounds.

Other territories can be more strict, for example, New South Wales (a lovely double adjective, often referred to as NSW) simply allows landlords to restrict tenants from having pets if they feel like it. Given that the average landlord sees a tenant as an inconvenience that reduces the value of their investment, most will probably outright ban the animals.

Western Australia goes even further, where you need explicit permission and it’s legal for landlords to charge an additional $260 to the security deposit. In contrast, the Northern Territory has outright banned “pet bonds.” In short, Australian law is varied, so it’s not inconceivable that a landlord could find a way to effectively ban “night sex” as OP puts it.

Of course, the landlord can’t spy on you inside your domicile, that, at least, is a “sacred” right. However, in theory, they could drop by to see if there is some stranger in your bed. For example, in Victoria, landlords can show up with only 24 hours' notice. However, thankfully, for most tenants, this can happen only once every six months. In most Australian territories, there has to be at least seven to fourteen days' notice.

While the legal right to ban overnight guests is not actually well established, many commenters already noted the similarities to the feudal systems of the past. Landlords seem to take the “lord” part very seriously, to the detriment of all of us. After all, what else can landlords ban if they can not allow, say, a visiting relative to crash on your sofa?

The listing actually mentions that this is for fire safety reasons. While it’s true that too many people in an enclosed space might constitute some risk, it's hard to connect that to a temporary overnight guest. Others have speculated that it’s a method to prevent subletting, however, why would the original tenant still be in the apartment at the time?

Overall, it simply seems that some landlords have realized that they can get away with quite a bit. Tenants feel under pressure and will compromise to get something livable in their price range. Fortunately, most people thought this rule was ridiculous, indicating that landlords can’t just get away with anything.