Home Property Australia Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act discussion paper released

Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act discussion paper released

  • July 21, 2023
  • by Property Australia
There have been proposed changes to the RTRA Act which would change the way rent information is reported

The state government has released the Ensuring the annual rent increase frequency limit is effective Discussion Paper, which proposes further reforms to the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 (RTRA Act).

The proposed changes to the RTRA Act follow the adoption of reforms in April limiting rent increases to once a year.

According to the discussion paper the objectives of the proposed reforms are to:

  1. ensure the annual rent increase frequency limit achieves the policy intent of effectively stabilising rents in the private rental market; and
  2. prevent or disincentivise the emerging practice of ending tenancies with existing renters and entering shorter leases with new renters at a higher rent to avoid the annual rent increase frequency limit.

To achieve these objectives the proposed changes suggest applying the rent increase frequency to the property rather than the tenant to prevent rental property owners increasing the rent more frequently than once a year, even where the tenant changes within this period.

Under the proposed reforms the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) would monitor rent information reported when bonds are lodged and topped up and investigate any offences.

For more information read the full discussion paper here.

You can also read the Property Council’s response to the state government’s proposed stage two rental reforms here.