By Mary Ward
A year into the Minns government, tenants can still be lawfully evicted for no reason or have an application refused because they have a pet, with no date in sight for NSW’s long-awaited rental reforms.
The state government has been consulting on its package, which proposes requiring landlords to give a reason for evicting their tenants and protections for renting with pets, since last July.
The state government’s long-awaited rental reforms are being held up by disagreements over “no-grounds” evictions. Credit: Peter Rae
Rental Commissioner Trina Jones told an estimates hearing in November the volume of community feedback on the proposed changes had caused delays, and she expected an agreed reform package with a number of changes would exist by the first quarter of 2024.
At that time, Jones remarked pets in rentals had been the greatest cause of debate. But government, industry and advocacy groups now agree it is a ban on no-grounds evictions which is most contentious.
This week neither Jones nor Minister for Better Regulation Anoulack Chanthivong, who has the reforms within his portfolio, could tell The Sun-Herald when the promised protections for tenants would be in place.
State parliament begins a six-week break this week. It will next sit in May.
Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson-Ross said his organisation had been happy to allow time for proper consultation, particularly because it thought interstate schemes with restriction on no-grounds evictions were flawed.
“But it is a year since the election, so it is dragging,” he said of the situation in NSW.
Since Queensland banned no-grounds evictions on periodic leases the state has seen an increase in fixed leases, Patterson-Ross said.
He said Victoria’s decision to ban no-grounds evictions only on second and subsequent fixed leases was problematic because negotiations about having a pet or repairs typically occur on the first lease.
More than half of evictions initiated by landlords are no-grounds evictions, where no reason is given for a landlord to end a fixed-term or periodic lease, according to data from NSW Fair Trading’s quarterly End of Tenancy Survey.
The Tenants Union of NSW believes the data shows a no-grounds eviction occurs every 18 minutes, which would total about 28,000 since last year’s state election.
Asked when the reforms could be expected, Chanthivong pointed to already implemented rules to regulate rent bidding, the hiring of Jones as an inaugural rental commissioner, and plans to increase housing supply, as measures taken to improve conditions for tenants. He said the government was “working through the complexity” of no-ground evictions.
“Renters deserve better than changes that risk unintended consequences such as higher lease turnover or less supply,” Chanthivong said.
“There is no nationally consistent approach to this challenge, and we’ve seen models in some states that haven’t worked as intended.”
Jones did not provide an updated timeline for the reforms, but said she looked forward to changes being introduced to parliament and had met with more than 70 stakeholder organisers and groups.
More than 16,000 responses conducted through the state government’s Your Say platform revealed “starkly diverging” viewpoints from renters and owners, according to a consultation summary report.
Ninety-six per cent of renters – and 56 per cent of owners who rented – said owners should need a reason to end a periodic lease, and similar proportions felt the same about fixed-term leases.
This view was only held by 28 per cent of owners and 12 per cent of real estate agents. However, the summary report noted that owners who had met with Jones were supportive of reasonable grounds to end a lease provided they have flexibility to access their properties for personal or family use where they would not be relisted on the rental market for an extended period of time.
But some interest groups are fighting against any restriction on evictions. A submission from the Real Estate Institute of NSW suggested such rules may breach international human rights law.
Patterson-Ross said opponents of the reforms did not understand moving back into a property or renovating would both be considered reasonable reasons to not renew a lease.
He said the status quo basically allowed owners to do as they pleased, including evicting tenants to relist the property for a higher rent.
“Tenants are currently being asked to just trust that, if they are being asked to leave, it is for a genuine reason,” he said.
“In any other industry, service providers would not be avoiding transparency with their customers.”
Animal welfare organisations say the delays are resulting in pets being abandoned at shelters, with shortage of people looking to adopt due to the precarious status of companion animals in rentals.
Greyhound Rescue CEO Nat Panzarino said she did not think the sector could cope with further delays to pet rental protections, noting her own organisation’s waitlist had reached capacity, with 300 dogs needing homes because fewer people are confident to adopt due to their housing situation.
RSPCA NSW CEO Steve Coleman said his organisation had been speaking with Chanthivong and Jones about the reforms, and he was keen to see them legislated as soon as possible.
“More and more heartbroken families are being forced to give up their pet against their wishes,” he said.
Domestic Violence NSW, the Women’s Legal Service and Lucy’s Project, an organisation which supports women to rehome animals after fleeing domestic violence, have jointly written to the premier, treasurer and Chanthivong, urging them to uphold their election commitment.
“We know many women and LGBTQ+ people delay leaving, or do not leave, a violent partner because they cannot find a safe place to live with their children and animals,” said Lucy’s Project CEO Monique Dam.
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