After years of campaigning by housing groups, New South Wales finally adopted reforms to the Residential Tenancies Act, including banning “no-grounds” evictions on October 24.
The NSW Tenants Union welcomed the changes, which come into effect next year, but said more work was needed to ensure renters had security and stability.
The also caps rent rises to one a year.
It does to terminate a lease for existing reasons under the law, including for a breach of the tenancy agreement, damage to the property, use of the premises for illegal purposes or non-payment of rent.
said the reforms are “a significant step toward”, as millions of renters have “experienced the effects of no-grounds evictions first-hand”.
The new law states that a landlord must provide a valid reason to end a tenancy and evict a tenant and provides (yet to be spelt out) penalties for those who misuse these new termination grounds.
Evidence will be required and a relating exclusion period may apply. The bill also sets down pet-friendly and fee-free payment rules.
The Tenants Union said that the changes, which include that landlords must provide free and accessible payment options, “begin to address the imbalance of power in the rental market, strengthening renters’ security and stability”.
But it noted the changes are just the beginning, saying more must be done to address the “steeply increasing rents” in NSW. Apart from the supply of homes, it said rent prices and the supply of social housing need to be addressed.
It also warned that the new changes leave loopholes that some landlords may exploit. Landlords can still discriminate against tenants with pets, it said.
Jenny Leong, NSW Greens housing and homelessness spokesperson, welcomed the new laws. She had proposed several amendments in the Legislative Assembly, aimed at strengthening the government bill, but Labor and the Liberals voted to reject all but one, which establishes a five-year review.
Leong chaired a parliamentary inquiry into no-grounds evictions, which had urged Labor to implement a ban immediately, after having introduced two bills on the issue.
Leong credited the bill’s passing to the organisations and activists who “dragged the government kicking and screaming to these reforms”.
“There is so much more to do to take the fight for renters’ rights directly to the greedy real estate agents, dodgy landlords and big property investors, but this is a massive win for the renters of NSW,” she said.
NSW Rental Commissioner in August that a “fit for purpose” penalty on landlords doing the wrong thing was still being worked out.
Renting in NSW is the most challenging in the country, with the median weekly rent in Sydney about $950, compared to $627 across the country.
More people than ever before are renting. , about 33% of people rent in NSW, a rise of 17.6% since 2016.