The amended Residential
Tenancies Act came into effect on the 1st of July. While smoke alarms and insulation are without a doubt the most significant of all changes (and rightly
received a good level of publicity), other more subtle changes to the RTA are not any less relevant. One such issue to note has to be the strengthening
of the retaliatory notice provision.
A retaliatory notice in the context of residential tenancy is when a landlord, motivated wholly or partly by the tenant’s exercise of legal rights, terminates
the tenancy in response to such an exercise. For example, your tenant serves you a 14-day notice to carry out repair work and later receives a termination
notice from you; of your tenant has reasonable grounds to conclude that your termination notice is wholly or partly motivated by their earlier notice
then an application can be made to the Tribunal to set aside that notice.
It is important at this point to note that the core concept of retaliatory notice hasn’t changed at all. The RTA has always given the Tribunal the ability
to declare a retaliatory notice to be of no effect so that tenants are empowered to exercise their legal rights without the risk of losing their homes.
The amendments merely strengthened the provision by
- Lengthening the time the tenant has (28 days from 14 days) to make the application to the tribunal; and
- Declaring the retaliatory notice an unlawful act (maximum $2,000 exemplary damage can be awarded to a successful tenant applicant).
The challenge facing landlords when it comes to section 54 is very much to do with timing and perception management. You may have received a 14-day notice
from your tenant which...
