By Dominique Tassell
A Warwick real estate agent says current proposed housing reform will make the housing crisis worse.
Queensland State Parliament is expected to pass the Housing Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 next week, which will make significant changes to the dynamic between renters and property owners in Queensland.
Helen Harm, of Helen Harm Real Estate, says we are likely to see more people selling their homes in response to the bill.
“If you have a property and the government is gonna start telling you what to do, you’re gonna offload it.
“People will just cash in their assets instead of dealing with the hassle.”
Helen says rental agencies will now most likely hand out breaches more liberally to ensure agencies can end tenancies when they have problems with a client.
She says currently agencies often give more leeway then necessary.
Helen also says this will affect how easy it is to get a rental to begin with.
“The scrutiny to get a rental will be even more harsh now.”
She says it’s not out of the question for rental agencies to start asking for criminal records.
The bill will “establish minimum standards to ensure all Queensland rental properties meet standards for safety, security and functionality before September 2023”.
The most significant change outlined in the bill is the changes to grounds for ending tenancies. Under the bill, property owners must provide clear approved grounds for how a tenancy can be terminated.
For a lessor, this can include reasons such as the end of the agreed term under a fixed term lease, significant repair or renovation needing to occur, sale of property, and owner occupation.
Lessors will also be able to seek an order from the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to terminate the tenancy for significant or serious breach of the lease by a tenant.
For a tenant, this can include reasons such as the property not being in good repair and not complying with minimum standards, the lessor providing false or misleading information about the lease or property, or a situation where a co-tenant is deceased.
A property owner will not be able to issue a notice to leave ‘without grounds’ under the proposed bill, providing tenants with more certainty. This will make ending periodic leases very difficult as all termination must be ‘with grounds’.
Under the new bill, tenants can end their interest in a lease with seven days’ notice if they are unable to safely continue it because they are experiencing domestic and family violence.
If a tenant requests to keep a pet, under the new bill a lessor must have reasonable grounds to refuse and respond in writing to this request within 14 days.
Reasonable grounds include if the property is unsuitable, and if keeping the pet would breach laws or by-laws.
Lessors can also place reasonable conditions on pet ownership, including that the pet is to be kept outside or that carpets are cleaned and the property is fumigated at the end of a lease.
Rent increase is not a reasonable condition. The laws also clarify that fair wear and tear does not include pet damage.
Under the proposed bill, tenants will have seven days instead of three days to return the RTA Form 1a at the beginning of the lease.
The cost of emergency repairs that can be authorised by the tenant will also be increased to the equivalent of four weeks’ rent instead of two weeks.
More to come.
