Be warned, landlords around the world – Robin Hood is expanding and the UK, US and Switzerland are now within his sights. An Australian lawyer who began making online videos to mock estate agents as a joke has been dubbed the “Robin Hood” of TikTok.
Jordan van den Berg started posting under the name “Purple Pingers” (a reference to drugs) three years ago. Recognition of the inadequate conditions under which people were living during the housing crisis, and the poor behaviour of their landlords, led to the birth of Mr van den Berg’s vigilante approach. Purple Pingers helps people find vacant properties in which they can squat and has provides a public database that exposes bad rental homes.
As in the UK and elsewhere around the world, Australia has a housing crisis. Homes are expensive and often beyond affordability, there are lots of empty properties and there is a shortage of rental homes. A shortage of public housing cannot address those in need. Rents are astronomically high. As a result, people live in sometimes overcrowded or unsafe houses with no security. Most of those affected are young and/or vulnerable.
In his postings, Mr van den Berg suggested that older generations had “benefited from really generous housing policy” and effectively “pulled the ladder up behind them”. Some of his posts are serious while others offer sarcastic reviews of available homes nationwide – sometimes in song.
As a homeowner himself, he acknowledges that he has a privileged background but he believes he knows what sort of experiences renters have when it comes to securing a home. He hears stories of people’s housing woes and feels he cannot do anything about it, although he says it is this “obligation to people” that has resulted in his belief that “one person can do a fair bit through the power of others”.
He is motivated to challenge what he calls “decades of mismanagement” and hopes that new legislation will one day provide better protections for renters and reform tax incentives for property investors. The database is in part to address a perceived imbalance of information. While landlords know much about their tenants, people renting a new property know nothing about the landlord.
As his TikToks became more popular, people began to share their own experiences which has led to a database of over 3,000 property reviews. His more than 200,000 followers on social media see anonymous posts of exposed electrical wiring, mould and mushrooms, illegal landlord visits, racist real estate agents and evictions following complaints made over poor conditions. Some posts expose properties being immediately readvertised for more money without addressing essential repairs.
The estimated one million empty homes are now being targeted, which Mr van den Berg says could help ease the strain on the rental market. Squatting is a legal practice in Australia, although there are laws prohibiting trespass or breaking and entering. Some vacant addresses are published although some addresses are given privately due to “safety concerns”. Indeed, he has been accused of encouraging crime although his answer to this is emblazoned on his t-shirt which quotes the words “good people disobey bad laws”.
Landlords have defended the number of empty properties, saying that there could be a number of valid reasons for a house being empty. However, one landlord’s defence tactic backfired after he attempted to publish Mr van den Berg’s own address – which turned out to be a parcel locker.