Landlords selling up because it's ‘too hard’ to rent with new minimum standards for tenants

The Andrews government’s tenant protection reforms are being blamed for driving landlords out of the market and making the state’s rental crisis worse.

New laws aimed at protecting tenants could be contributing to the state’s rental crisis as weary landlords offload properties rather than try to meet strict new standards.

And concerns have been raised that mandatory inspections of gas appliances and smoke alarms that are part of the laws are not being done, with no record-keeping by government agencies to track targets.

The laws came into effect in March last year and included bans on rental bids, more ways to keep pets at properties, and “minimum standards” for kitchens and heating and cooling.

But property experts say more complex requirements are having an unintended consequence of driving landlords out of the market — either by selling or shifting to short-term markets — and need to be recalibrated.

Weary landlords are offloading properties rather than trying to meet strict new standards.

Crippling backlogs at VCAT are also compounding owner angst, with delays of up to 22 weeks just to settle disputes over rent in arrears.
Property experts say because affordable housing being built by the government is still years away, a lack of affordable rentals is a growing problem.

Mitchell Property Training director Hayley Mitchell said some older landlords were selling up saying “it's too hard, it’s too expensive” to remain in the market.

“It's a real problem at the moment because there’s such a lack of property and renters are desperate and they are paying what they have to pay to get a roof over their head,” she said.

Property experts say the requirements are having an unintended consequence of driving landlords out of the market.

Former Real Estate Institute of Australia chief, Gil King, recently wrote on LinkedIn that the new laws “not only failed to meet its objectives, it has actually disadvantaged the cohort of renters it was introduced to protect”.

Part of the new requirements are for smoke alarms to be checked by March this year, and for electrical and gas appliances to be assessed by March next year.

Inspection companies say only a fraction of checks have been done.
The Herald Sun requested data on how many safety inspections have been done, but the Andrews Government and Consumer Affairs Victoria were not able to provide it.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman said CAV is “monitoring the operation of the reforms to ensure they are working as intended” and if renters felt their provider wasn’t meeting obligations they should contact CAV.

An Andrews Government spokeswoman said “our rental reforms strike a fair balance between helping tenants to have safe, secure and affordable housing, and benefiting rental providers with clearer obligations and stronger accountability for tenants”.