Tenants to enforce ‘rules of the game’ in rent reforms

Tenants with pets will have a better shot at securing a rental and existing requirements will be tightened under reforms coming to the nation’s most expensive market.

Landlords will still be able to reject pets on reasonable grounds, including if they could cause more damage than the bond would recoup.

NSW is unlikely to follow Victoria, the only state that reverses the burden of proof, Premier Chris Minns told reporters on Monday, but the legislation is still being finalised.

He said some landlords and property agencies were breaching “the spirit and the intent” of existing laws. 

“We need to make sure that everybody understands the rules of the game,” Mr Minns told reporters on Monday.

But renters will referee, if their application to have a pet is rejected, with landlords retaining some rights of refusal.

“It will be incumbent on the tenant to take the landlord to the (NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal),” Mr Minns said.

Other rules of the game for tenants to understand and enforce include additional charges to pay rent.

Landlords and agents are required to provide at least one way to pay without incurring additional costs, but legislation will make it “absolutely clear,” NSW Rental Commissioner Trina Jones told reporters.

“You must have the option to pay, freely, your rent every time,” she said.

Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross told AAP current laws only required tenants be offered a free way to pay.

“But that way can be quite inconvenient … people being forced to pay by cheque, people being forced to pay by cash, in person at an office,” he said.

Real Estate Institute of NSW chief executive Tim McKibbin told AAP the institute supported renters having a free way to pay.

“They’ve had that for some time,” he said.

But he expressed concerns changes to pets in rentals would prompt landlords to sell.

“We need a lot more rental properties than we’ve got … forcing a landlord to have a pet in their property if they don’t want one there will likely drive investors out of the market,” he told AAP.

Landlords are investors who want their asset protected from damage and the maximum possible returns and capital growth, he said.

“If one of those things come under attack, then a landlord or an investor will take some sort of action to address that risk,” Mr McKibbin said.

“They’re not there to provide social housing, that’s the government’s job.”

Mr Patterson Ross said landlords who might sell to avoid new laws were the kind intent on breaking them.

“Tenancy reforms like these are supported by the vast majority of the community, and they are not the basis on which people are making investment decisions,” he said.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the coalition supported making it easier for tenants to keep pets and ensuring they are not charged to pay rent.

“But these are matters that are tinkering at the edges, they won’t address the underlying crisis, which is one of demand and supply,” he said.

The NSW government plans to introduce legislation to implement the reforms in October.