Landlords would do well not to underestimate the RTA

Mainstream commentary on the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2020 (RTAA 2020) is grossly preoccupied with the removal of the 90-day no-fault termination notice. At times, it even exaggerates the (detrimental) consequences
landlords will be made to suffer post 11 February seeing as the proverbial rug is about to be pulled out from under us.

We disagree and offer this reframe – That while the 90-day no-fault termination notice is the easiest ‘catch-all’ solution for landlords to move along
problematic tenants, it is not the only one. To describe its removal as the clipping of landlords’ wings would be an injustice to the Residential Tenancies
Act (RTA) and the full set of tools it has available for landlords to manage our tenancies. Our hope and expectation are that landlords will come to
appreciate the RTA’s legal apparatus in its entirety and see that there are still ample ways to preserve our rights as property owners.

S56 termination

An example is an s56 application for termination (for non-payment of rent and other breaches) which is not subject to RTAA 2020 amendments. The section itself is nothing new. After all, it is the
legal authority for 14-day notices. The other aspect of s56 that does not get talked about nearly enough is that failure by the offending party to
remedy the breach within the notice period could give the aggrieved party the ability to apply to the Tribunal for termination. And this mechanism
could very well capture most of the situations that would, prior to 11 February 2021, warrant and result in a 90-day notice.

Say you have a tenant who persistently disturbs the peace in the neighbourhood but the behaviour never amounts to the statutory standard...