ACT tenants may soon no longer fear receiving a ‘no cause’ eviction thanks to the ACT Government’s rental reforms, but the REIACT is concerned for the rights of rental providers.
Feedback was sought from renters, tenancy advocates, landlords, and real estate agents on the proposed reforms to the Residential Tenancy ACT 1997, which were released today, 27 April, attracting a mixed bag of responses.
The four proposed reforms include ending no cause evictions, prohibiting rent bidding, minimum standards for rental properties, and freedom for tenants to grow their own food and to compost.
The most debated reform is ending the no clause evictions, although the ACT Government said the majority of respondents were supportive of removing the clause as long as new termination clauses were implemented.
Commenting on the feedback, ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said everyone deserves a “safe and secure” home to live in.
“Tenants should have the right to turn rental properties from a house into a real home. Property owners should also have the ability to effectively and fairly manage their properties,” Mr Rattenbury said.
“The ACT Government will use the responses and submissions on the proposed four reforms to create a fairer, safer rental system for all Canberrans. As with any reforms in this space, we need to consider the rights and responsibilities of both landlords and tenants.
“Tenants told us about the fear, expense, and uncertainty of receiving a no cause eviction notice and the disruption that it can cause to their lives. They told us that ending no cause evictions will make them feel more secure in their homes.
“The ACT Government has committed to end no cause evictions in the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement, but this consultation provided useful feedback on the situations that new tenancy termination clauses or provisions should cover and what notice periods should apply.”
REIACT contributed to the feedback but CEO Michelle Tynan is concerned that it’s too heavily weighted to one side, and rental providers will be left without protections.
“Under the feedback, there is no mention for protections for rental providers at all. The proposed reforms are heavily weighted in favour of tenant protections,” Ms Tynan said.
“It’s especially concerning around the no cause terminations. If that is removed, there needs to be an avenue for rental providers to remove tenancy. Not all tenants respect or comply with their lease agreements.
“There has to be protections for rental providers to exit the lease, and removing this takes away that ability. I can see nothing that will do that except for the right to end a tenancy at the end of a fixed term.
“They have to be really, really careful this doesn’t cause alarm with rental providers and they sell because it’s too hard to have any say on how they manage their property once the lease is signed.”
Ms Tynan is seriously concerned about the future state of the ACT real estate market if these reforms pass through as legislation.
“Whilst some of the reforms are well intentioned, there can be dire consequences and it’s concerning to us,” she said.
“When one party is favoured over the other you could see a real shift in the rental market, and given we’re already in a crisis with low stock available, can we afford for people to leave the market or choose to not invest in Canberra in the future?”
On the other side, executive director of Better Renting, Joel Dignam, is supportive of the reforms and said they’re positive, but there needs to be action “sooner rather than later”.
“We continue to hear from people in Canberra who are facing no clause termination. The longer it takes to implement these changes, more people lose their homes in the meanwhile,” Mr Dignam said.
“We want to see the changes actually put into effect.”
Most respondents, including rental providers and agents, agreed that landlords and tenants should be prevented from asking prospective renters to pay more than the asking rent. Although, there was more of a mixed response towards tenants offering to pay more than the advertised price.
The overall response to tenants being able to grow their own food was supported by the respondents, with 62.5 per cent of the total survey either agreeing or strongly agreeing.
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