{"id":25238,"date":"2020-02-13T12:19:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T16:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/blog\/key-changes-australian-state-tenancy-laws\/"},"modified":"2020-07-20T10:34:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T14:34:48","slug":"key-changes-australian-state-tenancy-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/blog\/key-changes-australian-state-tenancy-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to state tenancy laws 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog post relates to Rockend, one of our previous brands. For more information please <\/strong> read the press release<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n

The last two decades have seen a continued surge in long-term renting, making the private rental sector the fastest growing part of the Australian housing system – more than twice the rate of household growth.<\/a><\/p>\n

State governments are responding to this trend with new reforms to tenancy laws, providing more clarification on the rights of both tenants and landlords and to improve the rental experience.<\/p>\n

Here is a summary of the key changes to tenancy laws you need to know, listed by state.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

NSW<\/span><\/h2>\n

Effective on 23 March 2020, these are the amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 and the new Residential Tenancies Regulation 2019:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Clarified minimum standards for landlords to provide in a rented property: Landlords must make sure their rental property is \u201cstructurally sound\u201d; contains private bathroom facilities; and provides adequate lighting, ventilation, gas and electricity.<\/li>\n
  2. New penalties for landlords who fail to maintain smoke alarms.<\/li>\n
  3. Landlords will no longer be able to unreasonably stop tenants from making renovations of a \u201cminor nature\u201d.<\/li>\n
  4. New mandatory set break fees for tenants who cancel a fixed-term agreement.<\/li>\n
  5. For prospective strata tenants, landlords and owners will need to provide a copy of the strata scheme\u2019s by-laws before a tenancy agreement is signed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    More information can be found on the NSW Fair Trading website page\u00a0 <\/a>or you can attend the<\/span> REINSW Roadshow to learn more.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

    VIC<\/span><\/h2>\n

    The following reforms will commence by 1 July 2020:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Landlords will no longer be able to evict tenants without cause once a fixed-term agreement expires (i.e. banning no grounds evictions).<\/li>\n
    2. Landlords who have committed an offence under the new rental laws will be listed on a register from the Consumer Affairs Victoria website.<\/li>\n
    3. Tenants will be allowed to make minor modifications without their landlord\u2019s consent.<\/li>\n
    4. Rent increases outside fixed-term agreements will be limited to one per year.<\/li>\n
    5. Landlords cannot outright refuse consent for tenants to keep pets. They will need obtain an official order from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal before they can refuse permission.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Detailed information can be found on the renting changes page of the Consumer Affairs Victoria website<\/a><\/p>\n

      ACT<\/span><\/h2>\n

      The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2019 have taken effect on 1 November 2019 with the following changes:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Rent increases outside fixed-term agreements are limited to one per year.<\/li>\n
      2. Rental agreements allow more flexibility in keeping pets. Landlords can only refuse consent with the approval of ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.<\/li>\n
      3. Landlords can only refuse consent to tenants who wish to make minor modifications if they obtain approval from the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Minor changes include: Installing picture hooks, setting up a herb garden, and affixing blinds to a window.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Detailed information can be found on the RTA 2019 page of the ACT Justice and Community Service website<\/a><\/p>\n

        Queensland<\/span><\/h2>\n

        Proposed changes to Queensland tenancy laws is now under process with the following reforms:<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Owners will be asked to provide reasonable grounds for denying tenants the right to own a pet.<\/li>\n
        2. All rental properties will need to meet new minimum standards.<\/li>\n
        3. Landlords will no longer be able to evict tenants without cause once a fixed-term agreement expires (i.e. banning no grounds evictions).<\/li>\n
        4. The government will make it easier for\u00a0renters experiencing domestic and family violence to end tenancies without the usual notice requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          More information can be found on the renting page of the Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works website.<\/a><\/p>\n

          Compliance with your software solution<\/span><\/h2>\n

          We understand that these new laws require strict compliance on your part. Rest assured that we are making changes across all our solutions – Property Tree, Rest Professional and Strata Master, to help you comply with the new regulations as they come into effect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          This blog post relates to Rockend, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.
          \nThe last two decades have seen a continued surge in long-term renting, making the private rental sector the fastest growing part of th…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":25239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}