“Under the new laws, landlords will need to disclose if the property meets minimum standards in force, when advertising the property,” says The Greens ACT.
Helpful reforms could soon be coming ACT renters way after the government is proposing to make several amendments to the RTA.
These changes would aim to remove no cause evictions from the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA), meaning renters could only be evicted from the property for a valid reason, such as property damage.
The Greens ACT stated modifications to the RTA Bill would include the ability for tenants or landlords to terminate a lease if one party, harasses, intimidates, abuses, or threatens the other party.
Currently anyone leasing a property in the ACT can be evicted for no given reason, as long as the landlord or real estate agency gives 26 weeks’ notice.
Other reforms include prohibiting rent bidding, introducing minimum standards for rental properties and allowing tenants to grow their own food and compost.
A governmental review revealed that landlords, real estate agents and tenants largely agree that rental bidding should not be allowed.
This means agents would be prohibited from bargaining a higher rental price than originally advertised.
According to Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury, these changes would give tenants a greater sense of housing security.
“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,” he said.
It was found that 62.6 per cent of people were in favour of the new reforms and offered plenty of praise for the possibility of allowing tenants to grow their own food.
Mr Rattenbury added that property owners will also be covered in the legislation amendments.
“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.”
A drafted bill will be available publicly sometime later this year.
