If you’re filming on location though, it’s difficult (and costly) to alter real business signs and advertisements in the background. I’m sure a lot American movies and television shows do have real business signs and adverts in the background.
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A lot of those business probably wouldn’t mind that at all - it would probably give them a bit of free exposure,
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It might give some publicity but it also has the potential to lead to prank callers which apparently is one of the reasons for having the fictional numbers.
Apparently there is a whole business in the US making vehicle number plates for movies and TV.
The SyFy show Hunters that was made in Melbourne had a lot of fake numbers plates.
Just had an ad on this site for a company ACA investigated and found that it was a fraud.
Suppose no one went trick-or-treating or were trick or treated last night? 
Thankfully I was not which was for the best (for me and them 
) otherwise a door in their face would have greeted them.
Having acquired a passport, last week I did something I never though I would do (and I don’t think anyone else here would either) and enter the gruelling Comrades Marathon in South Africa next June. Start line at Durban’s Town Hall, finish line 88km away at the racecourse in Pietermaritzburg. Plan to depart 31 May, return flight from Durban on 6 June. Hope the body stays sound!
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Oh my, you ARE brave.
Perhaps one day you’ll be up for this.
http://3100.srichinmoyraces.org
3,100 miles in 52 days.
My car doesn’t even do that many kilometres.
Good luck with it all.
I was trick or treated last night.
Had heaps of kids knocking on the door throughout the late afternoon for lollies.
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Sounds incredible. Good luck and have fun!
Had a few kids come up as well and had no lollies, so I offered them fruit which they quickly declined.
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I was talking to the US today/their night and was surprised to be told that they had celebrated Halloween on Sunday, that being the day when all the kids trick-or-treat. According to this source, everyone goes around the neighbourhood in the afternoon, usually on the closest Sunday but some years on the Saturday.
I’m in need of a bit of advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation, or who is the landlord of a property.
I’m a uni student, finishing my 2nd degree next year, and currently live with my partner in a rental.
So, a few years ago, when we first started looking for somewhere to live, as a young couple, with no prior rental experience/references, etc. we had a lot of trouble finding somewhere to live, which is not really a huge surprise.
Anyway, we had no luck with most real estates and ended up finding an apartment for rent directly from the owner advertised on a local Facebook group for real estate.
We contacted the owner and came by for the usual 5-minute tour.
She told us that she had previously been living in the apartment for about 10 years, and was moving into a new home that she had been left in a family member’s estate.
She took us around for a tour, and everything seemed pretty good on the quick glance you get. She had one room locked and told us that it was her kid’s room and she hadn’t finished packing it up yet. So we never saw inside the room.
Everything seemed good, and we had zero luck elsewhere, so we agreed to move in in about 2 weeks time from that date, and everything was good.
On the day, we met with her to sign the lease elsewhere, she insisted that we paid our bond and first 2 weeks rent in cash only, which we did and received a cash receipt from her for. After signing, we received the keys and went to the apartment.
We arrived here to our new place and discovered that she had done no cleaning what so ever before leaving the property (to the point where the toilet and bathtub were both still disgusting, and the oven looked like it had never been cleaned in the whole 10 years she lived here), that the back door didn’t even lock, that the sliding door was jammed and didn’t slide, that the flyscreens were all broken and cut, and that the locked room that she didn’t show us previously, had a massive hole in the ceiling. Also, we found that there was no NBN or ADSL connection to the apartment, despite her advertising it as having NBN. And that there was no smoke alarm installed in the apartment and no fire alarm system what so ever installed in the entire building.
We contacted the landlord about the problems, but she didn’t respond to any messages or calls, apart from telling us to “do whatever you want” in regards to getting the NBN connected.
Over the next week, we spent about $1000 getting a new lock installed on the back door, getting the fly screens and windows fixed, getting the sliding door fixed, etc.
About one month after moving in, a for sale sign appeared outside and being an apartment complex, I didn’t think much of it, until the landlord sent a text message saying that she was listing the property for sale, but that we would remain tenants.
She had assured us that she would be getting the ceiling repaired, so we stuck it out.
2 weeks after this, part of the kitchen cabinets fell off the wall while we were cooking dinner one night, almost landing on my partner.
The cabinets sat on the floor for 3 weeks before she sent anyone out to fix it, and the person who finally arrived to fix it, advised us that the entire kitchen was a DIY job that the landlord had installed herself.
Over the next 3 months, as it was for sale, we had real estate agents showing people through the property every few days, which was annoying to say the least.
Eventually someone new decided to buy the property and they drew up papers, etc.
The real estate agent managing the sale of the property then called me to advise that we need to move out within the next few days, as the landlord had signed a contract with the new purchaser saying the property would be sold untenanted.
I sent the REA a copy of my lease stating that I had another 9 months left on the property and we were told by the landlord that we would be staying.
After this, the real estate agent contacted the new buyer to advise that the owner was breaching our rental agreement and the new buyer pulled out of the sale.
The property stayed on the market for 2 months with no interest before the owner removed it from the market.
Eventually, as the end of our lease drew closer, we were looking for somewhere new to live, but unfortunately had no luck at all once again, and were forced to re-sign our lease with the first lady.
By this stage, after one year of living here, the problems we had arisen with her the year previous had not been rectified at all, however, knowing that we couldn’t find anywhere else, she took the opportunity to increase our rent by $20/week.
Since then, we’ve had more problems arise which we have advised her of, and then had a repairer just randomly show up one afternoon about 3 weeks later without any notice.
We’ve also had the body corporate for the building hire someone who came around and painted the stairwells of the building (only access to our apartment) during the middle of the day while we were out one day. Meaning we came home and found all the stairwells to our apartment blocked off. We weren’t informed of this either.
The landlord refuses to communicate with us in any form other than via text messaging. So we discussed with her over text message that we were unsure what date we would be terminating the second lease, as we would not know what dates university exams would be finished, etc. until the date was closer.
She suggested putting 6th December as the lease end date and sent as a text that said, quote:
“If you want to vacate any earlier than this date, please give me two weeks notice and that will be fine”.
We agreed to this and signed the new lease with the end date of Dec 6 on it.
Now, as it’s getting closer, we’ve now managed to find a lovely brand new apartment right on the river with a real estate agent, for $10/week cheaper than our current rent price, which is available in 3 weeks time.
We applied and have been approved to move into the new address.
Knowing that we’d need to leave our lease 2 weeks earlier than the signed date, I tried to call the current landlord and wasn’t able to get through, so I sent her a text message advising her that as per our agreement from the start of the year, we were giving her 3 weeks notice that we would be leaving on 22nd November, etc.
She has now replied back that she will not allow us to leave earlier than Dec 6, and that she will be keeping our bond money.
I’ve since contacted the QLD RTA to enquire about our bond and have found that she has never officially lodged the bond with the Rental Tenancy Authority in the first place, or even registered that she is renting out the property (she receives centrelink single parent payments, so I have a feeling not registering the property may be a big breach of her terms with them).
We’re pretty stuck on what to do now, as uni students, we both only make about $300/week in our part time jobs currently, so don’t have the funds available to pay 2 rents for a period of 3 weeks, and given that she never lodged our bond in the first place, I highly doubt she will ever give it back to us no matter what we say.
Anyone got any opinions or advice to share?
Sorry for the large rant. Just feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Man what a shocking situation and I must admit I didn’t get to read your full message. I am a landlord but i can’t fathom how someone could treat a tenant like that. She certainly sounds like a very dodgy operator.
Was a property condition report filled in by you when you moved in so you could highlight any issues at the start of the lease? Although i get the feeling from what I’ve read that this was not an option. i would have thought it would be a legal requirement but obviously I don’t know what happens in other states.
Have you tried your state’s consumer affairs department? At least they should be able to confirm what rights you have as a tenant in this situation.
No, we were never given any condition report to fill in when we moved in.
I took a heap of photos (as the place had a lot wrong with it), but we never completed any reports at all.
As it was our first rental, we had no idea that anything like reports had to be filled, etc. until we’ve been accepted for the new rental and been given all the documents. I didn’t even know until recently that the bond needed to be lodged, etc.
I haven’t been in contact with anyone yet, apart from making an enquiry via email with the RTA about the status of our bond. I’m just trying to work out now what the hell to do about all this, who to contact, etc.
Fair enough we’ve got a lease signed until Dec 6, but it seems odd that she agreed at the start of the year that she was happy with 2 weeks notice if we wanted to leave earlier, and now we’ve given her 3 weeks notice and she is now refusing to let us leave early and threatening to keep our bond.
This is all despite the fact that she hasn’t inspected the property since March, and it is in a MUCH better condition now than it was when we first moved in.
Have you still got the text messages? That along with the photos, take it to your tenancy board in your state. As far as anything else, Centrelink have a dibbydobber hotline where you can either formally or anonymously report what you know.
Take all your evidence and launch a case in Queensland’s equivalent of VCAT. You have a strong case to get your bond money bank plus possibly more.
[quote=“NQCQTV2, post:109, topic:315, full:true”]
I was trick or treated last night.
Had heaps of kids knocking on the door throughout the late afternoon for lollies.[/quote]…and? You had none and told them to bugger off? And that we don’t live in America. 
[quote=“sammy123, post:111, topic:315, full:true”]Had a few kids come up as well and had no lollies, so I offered them fruit which they quickly declined.[/quote]I bet they appreciated that! I can’t believe the rage over Halloween these days. Such utter nonsense in my opinion. We’re not bloody America FFS. 
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No doorknockers for me this year, because I was on holidays! Although I suspect that I may not be so lucky next year.
Of course, I completely agree with the complaints about Halloween. If you ask me, it’s really just an excuse for kids to go and get free lollies because their parents won’t buy any! 
So, at school now and the teacher is showing a movie with the pre 2016 WIN map watermark 
It even had the 2012 Nine style PRG.
Seven’s Mel McLaughlin will be making her stage debut as the commentator for a new Sydney Festival contemporary dance production Champions, that combines dance with football (soccer), and has an all female cast.