Submission: SA review of residential tenancies act

More Australians are renting and for longer. Rental reform is required to ensure that people who rent have adequate protections, access to redress, and safe, energy efficient and healthy homes. The Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) has previously conducted research on renters’ experiences as well as extensive research on privacy and data protection that is relevant to renting. CPRC has provided a summary of our relevant research to those issues canvased in the issues paper.:

CPRC recommends that the South Australian Government:

• provide ongoing funding for renters’ advocacy and research in South Australia
• remove no cause evictions and provide specified reasons for the termination of a lease. These should be limited and clearly set out
• introduce greater safeguards and support for tenants to be able to exercise their rights and to seek repairs and maintenance without fear of blacklisting, evictions or rent increase provide additional tailored and culturally safe support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who rent to address barriers and discrimination they may face in the private rental market in South Australia. This could look like the Victorian Aboriginal Private Rental Assistance Program
• increase the threshold to $800 before more than 4 weeks of rent is required for bond
• introduce bond portability to allow tenants to transfer bond between properties
• prohibit the solicitation and acceptance of rent bids, the use of rent auctions and the advertisement of rents within a range
• prohibit landlords from refusing tenants to keep pets unless due to very narrow circumstances such as strata limits or health and safety issues
• prohibit landlords and agents from requiring a pet bond
• adopt minimum energy efficiency standards for both the thermal performance of the property and the appliances within the property. Noting that each will require a different trigger and timeframe for implementation, however this should be established in the RTA with clear timeframes for compliance
• prohibit agents and landlords from refusing tenants from making or requesting safety modifications
• Implement standardised application forms and urge the Federal Attorney-General to impose economy wide restrictions on sharing and use of personal information to third parties as part of the revision to the Privacy Act
• prohibit the charging of fees to a person requesting a copy of their personal information listed on a residential tenancy database
• impose that at least one or more options to facilitate payment incur no cost to renters. If third party applications are in the mix of options, where possible, those costs should not be passed on to renters