Queensland tenants secure more rights
Legislation has passed in the Queensland parliament that will provide more rights to tenants in coming years.
The new laws enact minimum quality standards for Queensland’s 1.8 million renters starting September 2023.
They disallow property owners from issuing a notice to leave ‘without grounds’ providing tenants with more certainty.
They allow tenants to have pets within rental properties in certain conditions. The pet clause commencement date is not yet known, but the changes to renting with pets will allow a property owner to refuse a pet on prescribed reasonable grounds that cannot be addressed by prescribed reasonable conditions.
The laws requires owners to consider the specific circumstances or the specific attributes of a pet request and deter blanket “no pets” rules.
They extend protection for renters who have experienced domestic and family violence.
The Palaszczuk Government passed its new tenancy legislation with some amendments, calling it "striking the right balance between renters and property owners."
Penny Carr, CEO of Tenants Queensland, the state’s tenant advisory specialists, welcomed the finalisation of the first stage of the reforms, but said they fell short of modernising the laws.
“Our focus will now be to ensure all Queensland renters understand the new laws, how to exercise their rights and meet obligations, without fear of eviction.
“Renters will find it somewhat easier to keep a pet and to have repairs attended to but they will wait until 2024 for minimum standards and will still be subjected to arbitrary evictions.
"These laws are not ones for a modern Queensland as they don’t offer strong enough protections from unfair evictions,” said Ms Carr.
The REIQ says the laws had swung distinctly in favour of tenants.
“Property owners have lost the right to end a periodic tenancy by providing notice,” REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said.
“Unless owners can establish limited prescribed grounds (such as the sale of the property) they will never be able to terminate a periodic tenancy."
The Housing Minister Leanne Enoch has committed to stage 2 of rental reform to begin in the first half of 2022.