Renters are feeling the freeze this winter, with new studies finding that many homes are ill equipped to deal with cool temperatures.

A report by Better Renting indicates that renters dealt with temperatures below 18 degrees inside their homes 75 percent of the time during June and July, which is the minimum recommended by the World Health Organisation. Some renters are even skipping meals to afford energy costs to heat their homes. Above average humidity levels and inflated energy costs have allowed the cold and mould to set in.

“Many people are just cold all the time. There is this daily struggle to get warm, to worry about energy bills, to deal with mould,” Better Renting Executive Director Joel Dignam tells the Sydney Morning Herald. 

“It has become normalised (but) we shouldn’t accept it as normal.”

Tasmania felt the cold the most out of any state or territory, with temps below 18 degrees more than 90 percent of the time. NSW, Victoria and the ACT were below the WHO recommendation 80 percent of the time. NSW’s humidity recordings were some 30 percent higher than optimum, with South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania sitting at around 20 percent.

Renters are sicker due to poor temperatures that also have an effect on mental wellbeing. Better Renting has called on the government to implement energy efficiency standards in rental properties, as well as tenant protections for those wary of landlords who may evict occupants for making complaints.

Chris Martin, a Senior Research Fellow at UNSW, says minimum efficiency standards and tenant protections are vital for Australians throughout winter and summer. He believes standards should be higher and points to Victoria’s ruling that all properties now require fixed heaters.

“To any landlords who say they can’t hack that and will leave ... we should be saying ‘good’. We are driving out the exploiters and the incompetent and making rental housing better and leaving more space for people to own their own homes, and for the non-profit rental housing providers.”

The Renters and Housing Union believe improved standards need to be enforced, as well as giving renters the power they need to not be hesitant when making complaints.