New rental reforms today, plus a Greens call for landlord licensing.
Victorian landlords would need a license to rent out their homes under a new policy call from the state’s Greens party as an election looms.
The party noted it would give licensed landlords three strikes before they would be effectively evicted from the state’s landlord pool, and banned from renting out homes as a bid to further crack down on ‘dodgy landlords’ and to make rentals more affordable.
It comes as the state government today implements its latest rental reforms for the state today, including a requirement for landlords to notify renters in advance that they will make a claim, with evidence, on their bond at the end of their rental agreement.
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Landlords and their agents are also now required to keep records proving that their home was compliant with rental regulations before being advertised for rent, and to have a gasfitter check their property within six months prior to undertaking draughtproofing — which itself becomes a requirement for landlords from July 1 next year.
Victorian Minister for Renters Tim Richardson said they had introduced more than 150 new renters rights reforms and the latest additions would ensure there were “no surprise bond grabs” among other things.
“Labor believes renting your home shouldn’t mean you’re treated like a second-class citizen.”
Greens spokesperson for renters Gabrielle de Vietri said the licensing system was needed because too many tenants feared reprisals for seeking to have issues fixed, even if the law required it be done.
![VIC PARLIAMENT](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri says those who can’t provide a safe home “shouldn’t be a landlord”. Picture: NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw.
“In Victoria you need a license to keep bees and if you want to use a metal detector,” Ms de Vietri said.
“It’s time to hold dodgy landlords accountable.”
The party estimated $50m in funding would be needed to establish an independent regulator to oversight the licensing system and other proposals they had for the rental market.
She noted that given landlords could be the ones making decisions over whether their tenants breath fresh air, or black mould, they should face “consequences for doing the wrong thing”.
“If you can’t provide a safe home then you shouldn’t be a landlord,” she said.
The Greens went to the last election with four policy calls relating to rental homes including seeking a rent freeze, ending no-grounds evictions, a ban on rental bidding and minimum rental standards.
Three of the four have since been implemented, with only a rental freeze not getting the go ahead.
Minister for Renters Tim Richardson says this week’s new reforms will shield tenants from surprise bond grabs from their landlord. Picture: NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw.
Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge said compliance with minimum rental standards was the second biggest priority for tenants, and said a rental property register would be idea for giving CAV a “live view of the sector” to help them target audits and compliance guidance.
“With 2 million renters in this state, we’ve welcomed the expansion of the Renting Taskforce, and encourage all political parties to support compliance with rental property standards so that the people who live there can live with dignity,” Ms Beveridge said.
However, industry groups have warned the concept risked driving the investors who own rental homes away from Victoria.
Property Investors Council of Australia board member Tim Graham said the Greens’ idea was “an overreach” that ignored changes to legislation requiring significant steps be taken before landlords could blacklist consistently bad renters.
“It would just be another feather in the cap for the state of Victoria to be the least investor-friendly state, and there’s no doubt this would be the final straw for many investors,” Mr Graham said.
There are concerns about what licensing landlords and a three-strikes policy would mean for the state’s supply of investors providing rental homes.
He added that it could easily have unintended consequences that would wipe out hundreds of homes if there were multiple strikes against a corporate landlord such as a build-to-rent operator, that could end with significant numbers of renters being forced from homes.
Property Council Victorian deputy executive director Andrew Lowcock said while they supported safe and well-maintained rental homes, it was also important that regulation nor risk discouraging investment in the homes that renters needed.
“At a time when Victoria needs more rental homes, all this policy would do is put a stop sign in front of the people wanting to build them,” Mr Lowcock said.
“Victoria is competing for local and global capital to invest in new homes. We should be asking how to attract more investment into rental housing, not introducing rules to push it to New South Wales and Queensland.”
Real estate industry groups support measures to improve tenant safety, but were unenthused by the idea of additional barriers to investor activity in Victoria and what it would mean for the availability of rental homes in the state.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Toby Balazs said while they supported the government’s reforms that would ensure rental homes were safe, the volume of changes had become a significant burden for landlords.
However, he questioned the Greens’ proposal noting that revoking landlord’s licenses and preventing them from renting homes out would be a detriment for tenants.
“I think there’s significant protections for tenants that have been introduced in the past few years, and that would not be balanced or fair for both sides of the market.”
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