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housing<br />
NSW Renting<br />
laws under<br />
review<br />
The long awaited five year Statutory<br />
Review of the Residential Tenancies<br />
Act 2010 has been announced<br />
and the Tenants Union is<br />
encouraging submissions.<br />
Fair Trading NSW has released a high level discussion<br />
paper, seeking input on a range of issues. The paper includes<br />
background and commentary on a number of known<br />
areas of concern for both landlords and tenants, and raises<br />
42 specific questions for consideration. It also invites comment<br />
and discussion on any issues not raised. Submissions<br />
are invited, with a closing date of January 29th 2016.<br />
The New South Wales rental market has changed over the<br />
last five years. As it happens, there’s a whole lot more of it...<br />
more tenants, more rent, more landlords, more debt, more<br />
high prices, more tenants, more rent - you get the picture.<br />
Now this might come as a surprise to some, such as those<br />
who suggested the market might dry up if, for example,<br />
landlords had to install water efficiency measures before<br />
passing on water usage costs to tenants. But it’s no surprise<br />
to us.<br />
And it’s no surprise that tenants aren’t doing as well as<br />
others out of it, either, given the architects of the Act set out<br />
to ‘balance’ the interests of those looking for wealth in the<br />
rental market with those who live in it. If such a balance is<br />
possible, or even desirable, it hasn’t been achieved, and the<br />
New South Wales rental market remains a dangerous place<br />
to live. This can be fixed.<br />
When the Act is reviewed, this question of balance needs<br />
to be revisited. Increased investment amid rocketing house<br />
prices over the last five years should give the NSW Government<br />
an incredible amount of comfort that shoring up<br />
the position of tenants will have no impact on landlords’<br />
appetite for more. Landlords will always occupy a position<br />
of relative power in their relationships with tenants - they<br />
own the property, they call the shots.<br />
Our renting laws should be designed to protect tenants<br />
from the careless, reckless or deliberate exercise of that<br />
power to their detriment, at the same time as ensuring<br />
they take responsibility for their own detrimental<br />
acts or omissions within this relationship. That’s<br />
less about balance, and more about acknowledging<br />
how the power imbalance actually works.<br />
There are a couple of key points where the<br />
Residential Tenancies Act completely fails to<br />
do this, and these should be the focus of its<br />
review. Most notably, the Act allows landlords<br />
to end tenancies without a reason, which makes<br />
the rental market extremely insecure for those<br />
who live in it. It also makes tenants very wary<br />
about how and why they approach landlords on<br />
questions of repairs and maintenance, or whether<br />
a rent increase is justified, or perhaps even how often<br />
28 Inner Sydney Voice • Summer 2015/16 • www.innersydneyvoice.org.au