On Sunday 17th November the Coalition Government announced a number of proposed amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act in accordance with the Labour Party’s election manifesto. APIA Vice President Peter Lewis was present at the announcement and reports on the following substantive elements of the proposal: 

It is important to note that these proposals will need to be enacted into law and that this is unlikely to happen before May/June 2020.
Until then the existing RTA regulations still apply.

The current ability of landlords to issue a tenant who has a periodic tenancy agreement with a 90-day termination notice without having to state
the reason for that termination will be removed. Instead, there will be a limited number of specific reasons under which such a tenancy can be terminated
by the landlord. These reasons include:

  • the landlord intends to make the property available for sale within 90 days of the tenant leaving the property
  • the termination is required so that the property can be used for business purposes
  • the landlord intends to carry out extensive repairs and alterations, during which the property would be rendered uninhabitable
  • the landlord wants to change the use of the premises
  • the premises are to be demolished
  • the landlord is not the owner, and the landlord’s interest is ending
  • the landlord has issued three separate 14-day notices to the tenant within a 90 period for antisocial acts
  • the landlord has given notice that the tenant has been at least five working days late with their rent payments within a 90 day period.

(For the last two reasons, the landlord would need to apply to the Tenancy Tribunal for a hearing in relation to these matters, presumably...