Victorian Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) Review

By Janet Spencer

The Victorian Government is currently reviewing the Residential Tenancies Act – the law that governs the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants. Significant changes to the legislation have been proposed in the Government’s options paper Heading for Home, released in January this year. The REIV strongly opposes many of these reforms, including:

• Changes to the notice periods around ending a lease, which may result in landlords losing the right to end a tenancy completely;
• Allowing tenants to make non-structural modifications to rental properties without the landlord’s permission;
• Removal of the landlord’s right to consent to, or refuse, pets; and
• The introduction on minimum rental property standards, despite standards already existing under the National Construction Code.

The REIV is urging landlords and property managers to help the REIV stop these changes from becoming a reality. You can do so by:

1. Contacting Government
   Email the Government and your local MP and give them your feedback about the changes. Click here for a full list of local MPs. We also have a template letter that can assist you.

2. Sign the petition
   Click here to sign REIV’s petition

We can assure you change is going to happen and if you don’t like the changes proposed above please use your political voice and let the Government know.

My son has a severe allergy to dog hair and if a holiday home we owned had a dog resident with the tenants, all soft furnishings would need to be replaced at the end of the tenancy.  That’s carpet, curtains and so that’s a big expense.  Personally, I would not be happy about this.

Allowing tenants to alter investment properties without permission of the Landlord would make it very hard to negotiate bond refunds at end of tenancies.  I hope there will be a lot more thought that goes into the new proposed legislation and that proper parameters are implemented.

Buyer Solutions will keep our landlords and tenants informed of actual changes to the Residential Tenancies Act once they are made law, most likely later in 2017.

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Buyer Solutions, landlords, law reform, REIV, residential tenancies act, tenants