Hobart tenants regularly report overnight rent rises of up to $150 a week.
And some tenants complain of living in sub-standard properties with "grass growing in the lounge room" and mould that regrows in 24 hours.Welfare agencies say the desperate tenants who will pay anything and live anywhere are a consequence of the dire shortage of rental properties in Tasmania.
Tenants Union of Tasmania principal solicitor Sandy Duncanson said yesterday sudden rent rises were a common complaint.
He said once a month they heard of rents going up $100 overnight.
Recently the weekly rent for a house in Moonah had risen from $145 to $290 and a place in Devonport had risen from $150 to $250.
Mr Duncanson said a disgruntled tenant's only option was to apply to a magistrate for a rent review, which was costly.
He wants legislation to link rent rises to the CPI and make landlords apply to an independent commissioner for any larger increases.
The latest Real Estate Institute of Tasmania data shows that in the year to September the median weekly rent for a two-bedroom unit in Hobart rose $30 to $230 and only 2 per cent of rental properties are vacant.
Centacare housing support services manager Andrea Witt said a survey had shown 56 per cent of their clients were paying more than 60 per cent of their income in rent.
She said one single-parent family was paying 78.6 per cent of its income.
"Often the first thing that goes is the food budget," she said.
"We are finding more and more people being impacted through groceries, affecting their nutrition and their health."
Ms Witt said three generations of a family or three families were cramming into small houses and others were living in sub-standard accommodation, with grass growing in the lounge room and mould everywhere.
"People will take these houses because they don't have a choice," she said.
The State Government, REIT, State Opposition and Tasmanian Greens yesterday called for an end to rent bidding, where tenants offer to pay more than the asking price to secure a property.
REIT chief executive Martin Harris said there was a "chronic shortage" of rental properties so rent bidding could occur.
Justice Minister Steve Kons said the Government had been "trying to work with the real estate sector to stamp out" rent bidding.
He said consumer affairs would be monitoring the practice but legislation was not the answer because it would be a form of "price control".
"This could lead to prices increasing unnecessarily, disadvantaging even more prospective tenants," he said.
But the Opposition and the Greens said Mr Kons should act to regulate or outlaw rent bidding.
