REIQ leads revolt against Queensland Government's COVID-19 tenancy protections
Antonia Mercorella, the CEO of the REIQ says the Queensland Government's proposed measures in the COVID-19 are the most onerous of their kind for property owners across all the states.
With landlords and real estate professionals emailing hundreds of letters to the Premier opposing the proposed measures, the REIQ is calling on the Palaszczuk Government to amend aspects of the proposed laws set to be debated in parliament today.
The measures include a rental grant of up to $2000 per person for COVID-19 affected tenants who have exhausted all other financial options.
The REIQ wants the legislation to have rent deferrals rather than permanent rent waiver rights for tenants.
"This aligns with the Federal Government model and framework adopted/being adopted in other jurisdictions," Antonia Mercorella said.
“We support the protection of tenants who are in financial distress due to this pandemic.
"However, the scope of these proposed measures are too broad in their application.
"In fact, they are the most onerous of their kind for property owners across all Australian jurisdictions to date.”
The REIQ is calling for a minimum income reduction threshold for tenants to meet before they qualify for the protection measures as in New South Wales, a 25% income reduction requirement applies.
It also wants a standard requirement for tenants to substantiate a rent reduction request to allow landlords to make properly informed and fair decisions about rent reductions.
It seeks to scrap the proposed break lease right that allows tenants to simply walk away from tenancy agreements with only one weeks’ notice notwithstanding that those tenants are afforded all the other protections provided under the Renter Protection Package; and to also remove the proposed automatic right to a 6-month tenancy agreement extension which in effect introduces a 12-month moratorium in Queensland with the consequential imposition of permanent rent waivers that would be extended over this additional period.
“The current protection measures clearly ignore the voices and rights of property owners.
"Property owners, like tenants, are entitled to be supported by COVID-19 regulatory protections that support the entire rental market,” says Ms. Mercorella.
"And once landlords discover the true extent of these distorted reforms, it will cause a revolt of a kind not seen before in a residential tenancy context.”
Queensland, like NSW, will both provide up to a 25 percent discount on land tax for the 2020 calendar year as part of packages worth $400 million and $440 million respectively, on the proviso savings are passed to tenants in the form of rental relief.