Balancing tenant and landlord rights: Will new Qld laws prevent you from evicting a tenant?
Occasionally we hear of an ‘out of the box’ change to property laws being proposed and this one should concern every owner of a Queensland rental property.
A review of our tenancy laws is underway and tenants’ advocates are said to be warming up for a debate on a landlord’s right to issue a “notice to leave without grounds”. The Act gives an owner protection to end a tenancy for breaches such as non-payment of rent, damage etc. But it currently also allows a landlord to simply decide (after any fixed term agreement is completed) that they would like to ask the tenants to vacate. No reason needed – you own the property so you have the right to decide who can live there.
Tenants’ reps argue this “contributes significantly to tenants’ feeling of insecurity” and undermines the sense of belonging in their home, and the Qld Government now has it on their list for consideration. Their recent housing discussion paper says the Act review will “identify options which will increase the affordability and security of rental accommodation, such as ways of encouraging longer-term leases, minimum condition standards for rental properties and reviewing provisions around notices to leave without grounds.” This same topic came up in the last review in 2012, but we had a different government then.
Interestingly the length of time a tenant stays in a Queensland rental home is steadily increasing. At the end of the 2015 financial year this averaged 15.5 months for a house, up 2 months over the previous 5 years. And our inner-Brisbane property managers have landlord clients willing to offer long agreements (two years plus), especially to keep good tenants in their properties. A landlord with a long-term investment plan and a happy and secure tenant is a great combination that we all strive for. In my 25 years in property management I’ve seen huge changes in the balancing of tenant/landlord rights and a vast majority of landlords know the importance of keeping a good relationship with their tenants. Landlords rightly see themselves as small businesses, providing a product into a competitive marketplace, and they need to offer and maintain an attractive dwelling, at reasonable rent and on reasonable terms or they’ll see it left empty.
But sometimes things happen. Sometimes people aren’t reasonable. A tenant skirts around the legal requirements and can’t be asked to leave through any breach. A landlord is driven to frustration by unreasonable demands (real or perceived). So when does a landlord go from property investor to housing provider? When should their rights as property owner be set aside to provide greater security to tenants?
The reality is there are already many, many provisions in legislation that do just this. For example, landlords can’t act vexatiously in evicting, even on a “without grounds” basis. Landlords don’t want their property to sit vacant so there’s a huge financial incentive to keep a tenant happy and put up with a certain amount of grief. But should the law lock me in past that point? In many countries there are wider-reaching rights for tenants, but these are also nations where governments house a huge proportion of the population. Council flats and swathes of social housing are the norm. In Australia we leave it to investors like you and me to supply the vast majority of rental accommodation.
Please share your views. Should investors’ rights as property owner be trimmed? Is there a social contract that comes with buying a rental home? Or do we already have the balance right?
As a landlord, property rents have been decreasing at a rapid rate over the past 3 or 4 years and the tenants already have far too many rights and it seems the owners who have to pay for all the repairs and maintenance get stung with higher and higher costs. Why is it that tenants expect so much and get given so much. This is wrong. Good tenants stay longer and the landlords want good tenants that stay longer as its less cost. Given more and more to tenants is just costing me too much. One reason I no longer wish to be a landlord.
Allowing tenants rights to trump landlord’s rights results in bad law and poor practical outcomes that benefit no-one. In London in the 60’s and 70’s I saw the result of legislation produced by similar thinking: a shortage of rental properties and an increase in rents. Not surprisingly, owners temporarily vacating preferred to board their properties up (very unsightly!) to deter squatters rather than rent them out. Interestingly, this led to a black market where students and others of demonstrably good character negotiated very cheap rents in good faith and both parties agreed to ignore the law. To the property owner this had the dual benefit of eliminating squatters and getting an income. To the student: great properties at a cheap rent. The key factor was mutual trust and respect.
In my opinion, a landlord should most definitely be able to ask a tenant to leave. Of course provided they are not on a fixed lease and a suitable time period is given so the tenant can find new accommodation. 3 months is more than enough. If the tenant wants stability they should sign a fixed lease. It is at the end of the day the landlords property and they should be free to choose their tenants.
For some of the reasons you refer to in your commentary, owners should have the right not to renew a fixed term lease.
At times tenants become ‘difficult’ in terms of demands or behaviour, not sufficient to create a breach but becoming awkward continuously.
At that point, although the owner may lose funds in the changeover, it can be beneficial long term.
I can’t see how it makes sense for landlords to be unable to ask tenants to leave ‘without grounds’ at the end of a lease period. It makes a mockery of owning the property. A much more sensible approach to increasing tenants’ security would be to normalise longer leases, with CPI and/or market rate increases built in to the lease. This would protect both parties more fairly.
Is there an avenue for making a submission on this matter yet?
Investors buy property and let them out to people who pay rent which is quite possibly equal to the monthly mortgage payments. If you as a landlord have been nice to your tenants (keeping them for many years) and kept the property well maintained, at the end of the mortgage end up with a property paid for by your tenants. How nice. I’ve been that landlord in a country where tenants have lots of rights in law which only came about by greedy uncaring landlords. My tenants paid their rent and were left in peace to enjoy their home. Rent increases were only made in line with the banks raising their interest rates.
If this goes ahead basically you will have some tenants who will be squatting. Currently in Queensland at the end of a lease period the tenant is able to give 2 WEEKS notice to leave but if the landlord wants the tenant to vacate they have to give 2 MONTHS. There is already inequities in the Act between the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords. By all means mandate longer term tenancy periods with automatic CPI rent increases at the end of each twelve month period but to take away an owners ability to have the property vacated at the end of a tenancy puts the tenant into a position where they have all the control and no responsibility. Landlords have tenants vacate for various reasons, sometimes those reasons are due to the tenant sometimes they are due to circumstances. Landlords need to retain that ability.
I have tenants who seem to skirt around the edges of law, exercising their rights but finding reasons for not keeping their side of the contract. For example they refuse to maintain the yard and hedges although that is in the rental contract, claiming the hedge is too high, they need power tools etc- I am 5’2″ and I used to maintain the yard neatly without power tools for years before they moved in. Tenants are easily over 6′
Tenants do not inform us of repairs required until just before public holidays like Christmas or Easter and then complain that we are slow with repairs. They never mention issues with workmen until at least a month after the work was completed then put in complaints like workman left the place dirty, workman wore shoes into the house or wanted to use the bathroom while he was there. Too late for us to take any action and we have to take their word for it. Now the tenants are demanding huge sums in compensation money because workmen left the place messy after completing repairs. The laws seem to fully favour tenants over landlords. Our landscaped garden is now a mess of weeds and overgrown hedges and bushes, valuable plants are dead from lack of water. And it seems I have no rights at all. I am suffering from severe stress and depression because I feel bullied and intimidated by the tenants
I think not being able to hand out a “ leave without grounds “ notice would be great . We are in a property where the agent is not above board to the point we were taken to the tribunal after they falsified documents , which we received a written apology about we are still in the same property however I don’t believe home owners are informed of everything . I’d like to see a home owner Tenant review where home owners can contact tenants to ask about the tenancy as I think a lot of homeowners would be mortified about what gets swept under the carpet and hidden from them . In particular maintenance requests involving electrical faults . Sure some tenants aren’t great however if you have tenants that look after your property why have them leave to have not so great tenants move in ? If you are given a notice to leave without grounds despite what the laws state real estates will not take you on as a new tenanted you aren’t the one requesting to move . It makes it extremely hard even for the good tenants . The property I have been in for three years I have seen the agent falsify ledgers , lie through their teeth about maintenance, and I’m certain property owners aren’t aware of this , these are the things that need to be stopped . As far as never ending leases so to speak , as a tenant I think this is great especially for those of us that do the right thing . And let’s face it your tenants help you to pay for your property so unless you are going to live in it why would you want to rid of great tenants that look after your investment .
What you selfish landlords fail to realize is that what you call investment, a tenant calls ‘home’. The reason you should not be able to remove a tenant from the property you own without cause is simply because of this. If you don’t like it then don’t gamble by treating people’s homes as an investment and for all those landlords who think the market has gone down -no, it hasn’t. If you think it has in any way it’s called stablilising and the reason you pay for things to be fixed is because it’s yours and not theirs. The arrogance and attitude from landlords is appalling and borderline feudal. The Act absolutely must be changed to remove the ability for a tenant to be forced to vacate their home for reasons other than breach of lease, damage etc. which are already provisioned for.
Owners are the ones paying the mortgage, fixing the property so that it’s safe for tenants, calling out a plumber/electrician/maintenance person whenever there is an issue. The gap between what is paid out versus what is received is diminishing every year. Interest rates are going up for investment loans, rent is getting lower. Owners are supposed to allowed people with animals without a say live in these properties. These properties depreciate by the minute as soon as this happens. Tenants blame everything on wear and tear, but somehow the next tenant expects the property to be perfect before they move in. So the owners pays again. There is no incentive to own property any more. The cost is too high and reward is diminishing. Tenants want to install what they want on the walls, have animals, damage the property and not clean up after themselves and yet they expect to be rewarded for this. In the meantime, owners with debts are expected to clean up after them at the owners cost. The usual society mentality where people want but don’t have any respect for something they DON’T own. ridiculous.
Belinda, doesn’t almost every tenancy agreement lay out the rules for animals (pets) in the property? So then if the tenants began to keep animals there, they would be in breach – and if they failed to remedy the breach within the given time frame, they can be given a notice to leave. Not a ‘no grounds’ notice, a notice on the basis that they violated the agreement.
Of course if they really want to dig their heels in it can take a bit more faffing about to get then physically removed, but at the end of the day something like that is still fundamentally different from a ‘no grounds’ eviction, I reckon.
As an owner of a rental property who wants to make significant alterations and updates I feel I should be allowed to give the tenant 2 months notice to vacate without grounds. I have had many rental properties and there are times when I wish the tenant would go away for a month so that I can perform some much needed repairs. How does this happen when I cannot control my own property – which by the way forms part of my retirement fund as I try to be a self funded retiree and not a burden on the ever diminishing tax payer. As an owner of a property we must have rights too and this right should not be taken from us. Two months is sufficient for a good tenant to find another property and I am sure the “without grounds” is issued only in necessary circumstances as you would never get rid of a good tenant.
Lucy 05/02/2019
As an owner of a rental property I am very concerned of the new legislation laws coming into QLD. I am frightened that my rights a an owner of my property, will taken away & the control of who can rent my property. In the past I have been a renter myself. I considered myself a good tenant, looked after all the properties I rented etc. Was look after by my landlords, didnt complain about rent increases, as I am fully aware of the expenses constantly going up. Banks don’t seem to mind increasing your percentage rates a few times a year. I have a tenant now almost got vacated himself. He informed me he wasn’t going to renew his lease unless I changed from gas to electric. He pays his rent on time & does look after the property, but he is way to demanding, tries to bully me to change expensive items because he thinks they are to expensive to run. Complains at rent increases ($10.00 in two years). I fix things right away, organize improvements to accommodate the tenant. If you take the rights of the landlord to vacate tenants at end of their leases for no reason given. I’m afraid I will sure be selling & wont be buying another investment property again. I’m sure others will eventually follow. Then where will tenants live then.
Renters take note as most of these comments are from landlords who by the look of these posts have done the right thing by the tenants you will not be able to rent a house in the future as landlords would rather sell there property’s than have the hassle of dealing with seasoned renters.
According to the current Queensland law, tenants need to give two weeks of notice and landlords need to give two-months of notice to if either party do not want to renew the lease. This is already in tenants favour. If they are not allowed to vacate the tenants at the end of the lease, the landlords will be furthermore disadvantaged, tenants will skirt around the edge of the law, yards will be overgrown, repair bills skyrocketing, neighbours suffer from noises and alcohol abuse, the relationship between landlords become explosive as bad tenants is allowed to squat, …. what a sense of a third world country. If the landlords decide to pull out of property investment, where can the tenants rent? Has the government built enough of Commission housing? Do they have resources to manage these government housing? How are they going to look after ex-landlords who were financially ruined by the ” no eviction” rule, and how are they going look after the renters cannot find a place to rent?
Sick of hearing landlords crying poor they have been building wealth through negative gearing and have had the controlling influence over tenants for years.The balance looks like shifting and they all start bitching before they even see how it will work out. These people have driven house prices to the levels where the average family can’t afford them so, if they want out and flood the market thus reducing house prices, great.I have been a land lord and renter so I have seen the issue from both sides. Landlords making veiled threats that there will be housing shortages because they will board up their properties rather than rent them is infantile and counterproductive.Landlord have more than enough legal protection for their properties and this just seems like sour grapes.