By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
FOR a growing number of residents in Casey, putting a roof over their head means living in an overcrowded and illegal rooming house.
In the past year the City of Casey has investigated three illegally operating rooming houses, and currently has 27 of them registered in the municipality.
They identified just one congested and unregistered property in 2013-’14.
With the growing problem spanning the region, Cardinia Shire has also investigated and detected four of the unregistered houses in the past three years.
Illegal rental properties housing more than three people without council registration do not comply with the minimum standards administered by Consumer Affairs Victoria and mean a $607 on-the-spot fine for individual owners.
Richard Maugueret from the City of Casey’s Community Safety section said under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 companies caught running unregistered rooming houses would have to cough up $1517.
Mr Maugueret said one of the problems with illegal rooming houses was hygiene, as local councils inspected registered rooming houses annually and their amenities could be largely undetected.
Anyone suspecting the operation of an illegal rooming house is asked to make a report to the City of Casey’s Environmental Health Unit on 9705 5200.
