Jenny Leong – Greens MP in New South Wales Parliament introduced Residential Tenancies Amendment (Tenant Protections and Flood Response) Bill 2022 last week.

I’ll cut straight to the key points:

• Prohibition on terminating a residential agreement without a “valid reason”. The definition of a valid reason is set out as part of the proposed amendments. The landlord will also have the evidentiary burden to prove the “valid reason” exists.
• No grounds evictions are to go.
• Rent control - landlords will be prohibited from determining the rent. Rental increases will be determined by the lesser amount of the:
  - Sydney Consumer Price Index (CPI), or the
  - Public sector wage increase

Whilst our association doesn’t support any rental price gauging for those affected by the recent floods in NSW, above moves are going to result in catastrophic failure of rental supply in NSW which will only:

• hurt tenants more,
• leave more people requiring government assistance, crisis accommodation
• living in tents and cars
• relocating to new areas

Right now, there simply isn’t enough rental housing to support all renters given the flood damage in these areas The Greens Bill is going to result in even less investors buying rental properties for lease along with many selling off vital rental accommodation, not just in these flood affected areas, but right across the state of NSW.

If you own an investment property in NSW – you need to act right now, by contacting your local member of parliament to express your serious concern about the unintended consequence of such a radical change to Tenancy laws in NSW.

To find your local member – here is the link

All Members - Parliament of NSWMembers' profiles are maintained by the Table Offices. For issues regarding Legislative Council Member profiles, contact the Legislative Council Procedure Office on (02) 9230 2319 www.parliament.nsw.gov.au

Call them, email them, fax them. Make sure they know that this Bill will be a disaster if introduced and will only hurt tenants. The vast majority of landlords in NSW are decent hard-working everyday people who will do the right thing to help out tenants in these difficult times. In addition, landlords are also experiencing increased costs in the form of higher loan repayments and increase material and labour costs to perform ongoing maintenance and repairs. We are all in this together, singling out landlords to carry all the risks and responsibility, by taking away their rights to supply much needed rental accommodation is a disaster that is preventable if your member of parliament votes down this bill.

Finally, please forward this important message on to every other property investor in NSW you know along with family and friends who also see the potential disaster this bill will recreate in the NSW property market.

 

Yours in good faith,

Ben Kingsley
PICA Chair