Renters’ rights have never been more important

A summary of the VCOSS Renters Rights Rundown, 29 March 2023

In news that will surprise no one who knows about the Victorian rental crisis, a VCOSS poll of community sector workers has found that the number one issue facing renters is finding a property.

The poll was conducted during the week that we said Happy Birthday to the Victorian Government’s rental reforms, which just turned two years old.

The purpose of the reforms – to give renters more rights and power in a market that’s often stacked against them – has become even more vital as the crisis has worsened.

But laws are only as good as their application – to be effective they need to be well known and understood, enacted and enforced.

With more than 130 reforms washing through the system, it isn’t always possible for individual renters to know and understand all of their rights. And in an incredibly constrained rental housing market, it isn’t always easy for renters to assert their rights. That’s where the community sector comes in – specifically workers who provide information, advice, assistance and advocacy to people with rental issues.

VCOSS is committed to supporting frontline workers to stay across the full scope of the rental reforms, so that you have the information you need to assist people who are struggling. To that end, we’re running a new series of online Renters’ Rights Rundowns (RRR).

At the first RRR for 2023, attended by around 300 people, Ben Cording from Tenants Victoria provided a wealth of helpful information about renters’ rights set out in the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. The presentation focused on key changes that were introduced in March 2021.

The presentation included details about a new eviction process:

Ben said, “One of the major changes is that they removed the no reason notice to vacate. You used to be able to get a four-month notice essentially saying, I don’t have to tell you why I’m kicking you out, I’m kicking you out. That’s gone.”

“Another shift has been with any notice to vacate that’s for no fault. In most cases, they need to provide the evidence when they’re asking you to leave. So if they’re saying, for example, they want to do repairs and renovation, they actually need to show quotes. They need to show how long the works will take. They need to show that it’s necessary, that the renter actually has to move out and that the works can’t be done while you’re still living there.”

Along with this new standard of landlord accountability, another change is the introduction of the reasonable and proportionate test.

“Now, even if they can prove the reason that they want to kick you out, there’s still this question of the hardship, the relative hardship between the parties. It’s not a perfect test, it’s not working as strongly as we would like, but it certainly is stopping some evictions where it’s really not necessary or it’s exposing families to a really severe risk of immediate homelessness.”

When the laws were first introduced, tenancy experts noted that the first few years would feel like a work in progress, as reform elements would be tested in the legal system and rulings would help clarify the practical application of the new laws. This is the case with any major legislative reform. This theme of the laws being a work in progress was reflected in Ben’s summary of other changes, including the rules around pets in rentals (“the vast majority of pet decisions that have gone to VCAT have been successful in favour of the renter”), and anti-discrimination laws:

“It’s unlawful to discriminate when people are applying for properties, and we certainly know that discrimination is a very real thing for a lot of people when they’re applying for properties… So it’s certainly worthwhile being aware of the conduct and the basis of the decisions.”

With rents soaring and the cost of living increasing, the RRR event reinforced that rental arrears are a live issue for many people, so workers need to know the rent arrears framework:

Once someone owes more than 14 days’ worth of rent they can be given a notice to vacate, but the renter has a right to go to VCAT and ask for a payment plan.

Ben says, “There’s really nothing to lose by asking for the payment plan. If you’re not successful in proving the payment plan, then you can ask for extra time, an extra month, and that can be really important in terms of accessing many of your services.”

“We know that most renters are really scared of going to VCAT… The main thing with VCAT is that it’s very user-friendly, most people represent themselves and it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, you don’t have to pay any legal costs.”

This message of not being afraid to front up to VCAT for protection or redress of renters’ rights carried through to other issues, including rent increases, provisions for victims of family violence, lease terminations and bond disputes.

Ben strongly recommended normalising and destigmatising the use of financial counsellors, and being aware of a range of new obligations and prohibitions on landlords and real estate agents.

These new obligations include mandatory disclosures like building and construction plans, asbestos, and relevant historical details about the property.

The new prohibitions include questions that landlords and real estate agents can no longer ask prospective or current tenants, such as personal details about gender, sexuality, marital or parental status, or unreasonable financial details (“they can’t ask for your bank statements and go through all of the things you’ve been spending and go, oh, I can see you owed a little bit of money here and you bought the kids ice cream”).

Ben also highlighted important details of new minimum standards, including that every house in Victoria needs to be mould free, structurally sound and weather proof, have an energy efficient heater in the living area, and have an electrical safety switch.

“If a house doesn’t meet the minimum standards and the rental agreement has started since the 29th of March 2021, then you can treat it as an urgent repair, so you can get into VCAT within two business days.”

The top-line message? Even though this session was for sector workers, many of whom are relative experts in the operation of these rules, it’s a complex and changing landscape and there’s always more to learn. As Ben says, “I’m many years in and still feel like I don’t know everything.”

To that end, Tenants Victoria has a free advice line specifically for community sector workers needing advice for their clients.

“You can call that as much as you need. It doesn’t matter if you’re just confirming something, or if it’s a really complex matter, you can contact us if you’re an organisation supporting a renter. So don’t be a stranger, we really do want to hear from you there.”

You can:

• call Tenants Victoria on (03) 9411 1444, or
• email via Tenants Victoria’s portal on the website.

To consolidate Ben’s excellent overview of the rent reforms, VCOSS will be hosting more Renters’ Rights Rundown sessions throughout 2023, including:

• Renting and family violence
• Healthy homes – minimum standards, modifications, repairs and more
• Making sense of evictions

Keep an eye on https://vcoss.org.au/projects/rentersrights/ to find out more about these sessions and for other helpful resources for supporting renters.  

Please let us know if there are other renters’ rights topics you’d like to know more about by emailing Karen Taranto at karen.taranto@vcoss.org.au.

▇ VCOSS thanks our colleagues at Tenants Victoria for their participation in this event.

VCOSS thanks Consumer Affairs Victoria for their support of VCOSS’s rental fairness sector capacity building work and acknowledges this work is undertaken thanks to a grant from the Victorian Property Fund.