Laws ending no fault evictions come into effect in NSW today

Reforms to rental laws in NSW will take effect from today, granting tenants more rights, including an end to no grounds evictions.

Transcript

00:00After the Minns government went to the 2023 election promising to strengthen renters rights,

00:10significant changes to tenant laws in New South Wales, which passed last year, will come into

00:16effect today. The most significant of those is the end to no grounds evictions, but they'll also

00:24ensure that tenants have a fee-free way to be able to pay for their rent. Now, with these changes,

00:31New South Wales Fair Trading's new rental task force has compliance officers and inspectors

00:38who will be enforcing these new laws, and there'll be heavy penalties for any landlords that don't

00:45abide by them. But this is actually the second round of changes to come through within New South

00:51Wales in the last nine months or so after these laws were passed. Last year, the New South Wales

00:57government banned extra fees for prospective tenants for things like background checks before a rental

01:04property gets approved for a tenant, and they've also limited rent increases to once per year.

01:11But this is what Premier Chris Minns had to say about the changes this morning.

01:16We went to the election promising that we would implement change, and we've done exactly that.

01:20Now, these changes are important not just for those who are renters in the New South Wales

01:24economy, and as I said, there's been a massive explosion in the number of people who are

01:28renting. They've got rights. They need to be represented in these law changes. It's also

01:34incredibly important for the economy.

01:37Julia, it'll now be easier for tenants to keep pets in their homes. How exactly will that

01:41work? Yeah, this is a big win for tenants with pets. Landlords will now have to give a written

01:50response to a request for a pet within a rental property within 21 days. And if they don't provide

01:58that written response, the application for that pet is automatically approved, which is a big change.

02:06Now, landlords can refuse a pet in a property if the pet is unsuitable for the property, or if the

02:16amount of damage which could be caused by the animal in the property will outweigh the amount

02:23that the bond can cover, or even if a landlord lives at a property. So although there are some changes,

02:32there are some ways that landlords can push back on a request for a pet within a property.

02:39But those changes also apply to leases that begun before this period today started. So anyone who

02:48wants to fight back against a landlord who has said no to a request for a pet can go to the New South

02:57Wales civil and administrative tribunal.