Tenants across Australia say they feel pressured or forced into using apps to pay rent and request repairs
CHOICE has spoken to five renters and gathered evidence of real estate agents not giving them any alternatives to using the apps
Documents show executives from Ray White hold an undisclosed financial stake in an app recommended by some of the company franchises
To any renter searching for a home, a successful application comes as a huge relief.
For Ella, it was a lifeline.
An engineering apprentice in Brisbane, Ella needed a new rental to escape domestic violence. One month and several rejections later, she found a one-bedroom apartment managed by LJ Hooker.
The agent asked Ella to use a third-party platform called Rental Rewards to pay her rent; the platform charges $8.91 per quarter.
“I’m on apprentice wages, so half of my weekly income goes to rent,” she says. “With petrol prices, and the cost of food at the moment, I’m scraping by every week.”
Close to half of all Victorian renters are required to use apps or other technology as part of their renting arrangements
Ella is one of many Australian renters who feel pressured by their real estate agent to use third-party platforms, commonly known as “RentTech”, to pay their rent or request maintenance. Many are concerned about extra fees and how their data is being used.
According to a 2025 study by Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC), close to half of all Victorian renters are required to use apps or other technology as part of their renting arrangements.
Despite recent laws introduced across Australian states giving renters the right to say no to using these platforms, many tenants say they are given little choice.
The law in Ella’s state of Queensland says renters must be given a “reasonably accessible” option to pay rent that doesn’t exceed normal transaction fees, so Ella asked her agent if she could pay using an alternative method.
The options LJ Hooker provided, such as a costly post office money order, cheque, or getting her employer to deduct rent from her salary weren’t accessible to Ella. When she asked for a direct debit or BPay option, the agency refused. “I think they purposefully made the fee-free option difficult”.
Although she tried to argue for a fair alternative, Ella says she needed to move in immediately as her domestic violence situation was getting worse. “I feel like I’ve been cornered into it”, she says. “I just wanted to pay my rent. There’s no point arguing”.
In response to CHOICE’s questions, LJ Hooker said it “takes compliance with tenancy legislation seriously across all states and territories in which our franchisees operate, and these obligations form part of our franchise requirements”.
LJ Hooker went on to say: “Each franchise is responsible for ensuring its operations comply with [legislative] requirements.”
Tenants not in a position to stand up for their rights
Other states have gone a step further than Queensland.
Laws in both New South Wales and Victoria specifically state that tenants must be provided options like EFT or Centrepay to pay their rent. In NSW, tenants also cannot be forced to use an app for other renting matters such as requesting repairs.
Tenants Union NSW CEO Leo Patterson Ross says that even when agents are breaching the law, tenants are often not in a position to stand up for their rights and that some agents “dismiss the law because they’re not worried about the consequences”.
“What is really needed is an active and visible regulator,” he says.
Even when agents are breaching the law, tenants are often not in a position to stand up for their rights
Deputy CEO of Tenants Victoria Cameron Bloye agrees. He says tenants aren’t empowered to make complaints.
“Unfortunately, many renters are not willing to risk damaging the relationship and they’ll put up with some pretty bad conditions and breaches of their rights to avoid any kind of conflict,” he says.
Despite increased powers for enforcement bodies in NSW and Victoria, Patterson Ross says many renters still fear retaliation.
In an email seen by CHOICE, a Belle Property office in Sydney told their tenants to begin using the third-party platform PropertyMe and did not provide them with other options for payment.
Any NSW tenant who is told they must use an app is being misled by their agency
Belle Property told a tenant “we have implemented MePay, which will be the required method for paying from the 2nd of March 2026”. Belle Property also said “all maintenance must be reported through your PropertyMe tenant account. Maintenance requests will no longer be accepted via email or phone unless it is an emergency”.
Patterson Ross says any NSW tenant who is told they must use an app is being misled by their agency.
“Either they don’t know the law, in which case they are breaching their code of conduct by not knowing the law, or they are actively trying to mislead and deceive the tenant”.
In response to questions from CHOICE, Belle Property says it “does not support any approach that is inconsistent with legislative requirements”.
In NSW, tenants can’t be forced to use an app to request repairs.
An imbalance of power
A spokesperson from NSW Fair Trading says in the past year it received 32 complaints relating to payments on third-party platforms.
Fair Trading’s Rental Taskforce has seven active investigations and has conducted a further nine investigations in the past 12 months. A spokesperson from Queensland’s Residential Tenancy Authority says it managed seven investigations this financial year.
Although Tasmania and Victoria (as of 31 March 2026) have outlawed third-party fees to pay rent altogether, some tenants are still worried about how rental platforms use their data.
Stephanie*, a Victorian tenant in her forties, pushed back against Belle Property when they asked her to use Ailo, another RentTech platform. She says she was “quite alarmed” at what information was collected.
Ailo’s privacy policy states they can disclose personal information to related entities, financial product issuers and credit providers.
It’s really hard to fight that fear that it could affect your housing in any way, or have a black mark put against you
Stephanie, Victorian tenant
Its website states that Ailo is regulated under an Australian Financial Services License and follows strict laws to protect information. Ailo also says it will never sell personal information to third parties.
Although Belle Property offered to discuss other rental payment options, Stephanie says her agent kept pushing her to use the app, taking six weeks to finally provide an alternative, fee-free payment method.
Stephanie says the interaction was a reminder of the power imbalance between tenants and agents. She lives with a chronic illness and says that standing up for basic legal rights as a tenant can be a scary experience.
“It’s really hard to fight that fear that it could affect your housing in any way, or have a black mark put against you. You don’t feel that you’re empowered as a tenant,” she says.
Experts say renters like Stephanie are rightly concerned about how their data is being used.
Chandni Gupta, digital policy director at CPRC, says “there’s very little transparency at the moment in how businesses, including real estate agents, collect, share and sell our personal information, and what they do with it”.
Given these apps are used for rental applications, paying leases and requesting repairs, Gupta says that “the amount of data being harvested can give rise to social profiling and potentially exclude people from being offered a home to rent”.
Lina Przhedetsky, a postdoctoral research fellow at Melbourne Law School, says rental apps may fit the definition of tenancy databases in some jurisdictions, given the nature and purpose of information they collect.
The amount of data being harvested can give rise to social profiling and potentially exclude people from being offered a home to rent
Chandni Gupta, digital policy director at CPRC
Tenancy databases can be used to blacklist tenants from applying to new homes and are tightly regulated across Australia. Przhedetsky says laws governing these databases are playing catch up and “don’t apply very neatly [to rent tech] because they’re designed for a different technology”.
Gupta adds that federal privacy laws are similarly not fit for purpose. Currently small businesses are exempt from the Privacy Act, a category most real estate agencies, as franchises, fall under. “The Privacy Act needs to apply to all businesses, no carve outs or exemptions,” she says.
Privacy experts say tenants are right to be concerned about their privacy.
Requesting repairs through AI
Rental apps have also embraced the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which some tenants say worsens their renting experience.
Jack*, a Newcastle resident renting through agency Thompson and Clarke, was told to request maintenance through an AI chatbot on a property management platform.
Jack says when he moved in, he had several urgent issues to raise with his agent, including a broken oven.
A Newcastle resident renting through agency Thompson and Clarke was told to request maintenance through an AI chatbot
When Jack brought these issues to Thompson and Clarke directly he says he was given no choice but to use the chatbot to request repairs, despite his rights under NSW law to opt out. In emails seen by CHOICE, he was told by a property manager that control over which platforms were used to manage maintenance requests was determined by the rental agency.
Jack says using the chatbot was “frustrating” as it could not comprehend basic maintenance issues. “I think I would have an easier time explaining the issues to my toddler,” he said.
After several months of communicating with the platform and his agent, Jack says the maintenance issues still have not been fully resolved.
Thompson and Clarke told CHOICE the agency “does not require tenants to use any specific third-party platform to report maintenance” and that “tenants are always able to contact our office or their property manager directly”.
CEO of Tenants Union NSW Leo Patterson Ross says that even though third-party platforms are being presented to renters as a way of making leasing easier and more convenient, they often perpetuate the problems experienced by tenants.
“The tech solutions being put forward are being designed in the [landlord/agent’s] interest, to support the part of the industry that has the power and is making the money,” he says.
In a search of the Australian Securities and Exchange Commission (ASIC) records, CHOICE found that Ray White executives have a financial stake in one of the app companies recommended by the agency.
Ray White CFO, Luke Richardson, and CFO and Trustee of the White Family Office, Andrew Jamson (who manages the investments of the family that owns Ray White), both hold significant shares in the holding company for rent tech company Ailo.
CHOICE found that Ray White executives have a financial stake in one of the app companies recommended by the agency
According to Queensland Tenancy Law, property managers must disclose any financial benefits they may receive if the tenant uses a specific payment method. However, CHOICE was unable to find any disclosure of the financial connection on either Ray White or Ailo’s websites.
CHOICE is not alleging Richardson or Jamson have acted illegally.
A Ray White spokesperson says individual franchisees are free to choose their own systems and that they expect any individual office and agent to comply with disclosure obligations.
Despite real estate agencies insisting tenants have a choice, many say the actions of agents mean they feel they do not
“Ailo is an independent company with its own shareholders and its own commercial relationships, both within the Ray White network and with agencies outside it. Ray White does not mandate the use of Ailo across its franchised network,” the spokesperson says.
But despite real estate agencies insisting tenants have a choice, many say the actions of agents mean they feel they do not.
“This isn’t a discretionary good, we’re not buying something just for fun or entertainment,” says Przhedetsk.
”We’re talking about an essential service that a consumer can’t walk away from.”
James is a Master of Journalism student from the University of Melbourne. He has published in Cosmos, The Citizen, and has created podcast series for We Are Explorers and Protect Our Winters Australia. James has a particular interest reporting on science, environmental and social issues, and was a recipient of a JEERA Ossie Award for his journalism. LinkedIn
James is a Master of Journalism student from the University of Melbourne. He has published in Cosmos, The Citizen, and has created podcast series for We Are Explorers and Protect Our Winters Australia. James has a particular interest reporting on science, environmental and social issues, and was a recipient of a JEERA Ossie Award for his journalism. LinkedIn
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