Rental reforms pass in Queensland but not all tails are wagging

Reforms will make it easier for Queensland renters to keep a pet but the changes have been denounced as going too far by the LNP and not far enough by the Greens.

Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch said the changes, which passed on Thursday, meant a property owner must respond in writing within 14 days of a renter’s request to keep a pet.

The Palaszczuk government’s rental reform bill has passed.Credit: iStock

If the owner does not respond within two weeks, the request will be deemed to be approved.

“We know that this change will make a big difference to the lives of many people,” Ms Enoch said.

“COVID has reinforced how important pets can be for people’s wellbeing, which is why this is an important inclusion in the bill.”

Landlords will be able to refuse a request to keep a pet for several reasons, including a lack of fencing or open space, unacceptable risks to health and safety, or that keeping the pet was likely to result in damage exceeding the value of the rental bond.

LNP housing spokesman Tim Mander said the changes meant landlords would have to justify why they did not want an animal on the property they owned, and they should not have to go through “rigmarole” to knock back a request.

“We all know that animals cause damage,” he said.

“We all know that you can enter a house and know immediately that a dog or a cat has been in the house because of the odour.

“The property owner deserves to retain the right for that not to happen.”

Greens MP Amy MacMahon has proposed a rental reform bill.

But Greens MP Amy MacMahon, who failed in her attempt to delay the bill until MPs who were landlords – about one in three – excused themselves from debate, said it did nothing to address the unequal power relationship between lessors and tenants.

“The power around pets sits firmly with property investors and landlords,” she said.

Ms MacMahon hoped to move amendments that would have allowed tenants to keep pets unless their landlord successfully applied to QCAT for an order to the contrary, but was unsuccessful.

Labor’s bill would also stop landlords ending a lease without grounds and prescribed minimum housing standards from September 2023 for new tenancies and September 2024 for all tenancies.

Grounds for eviction will include the end of a fixed-term agreement or if the owner wishes to perform significant repairs or renovations, sell or move in themselves.

About one-third of Queensland’s 1.65 million households rent.

The Greens had also proposed a bill which would cap rent increases to once every 24 months by no more than CPI, ban rental bidding, and end “no grounds evictions”, even when a fixed-term contract was due to expire or the owner wanted to sell the property.

But under the “same question rule”, Speaker Curtis Pitt ruled the Greens bill would be discharged as it attempted to achieve the same objectives.