Queensland leads the way on emergency tenancy legislation

REIWA notes that Queensland have led the way and will be removing further restrictions from its emergency residential tenancy legislation and urges the McGowan Government to do the same.

REIWA President Damian Collins said the QLD Government’s handling of the COVID-19 legislation should be commended.

“The QLD Government listened to all stakeholders, formed an advisory group and ultimately introduced fair legislation that provided protection to those in genuine hardship as a result of COVID-19,” Mr Collins said.

“This further easing is a sign that a balanced approached worked and their economy and rental market has made it through the worst of the pandemic.”

The WA Government should learn from the success of the QLD Government and amend the Residential Tenancies (COVID-19 Response) Act 2020, so that it only applies to those in ongoing hardship.

“WA’s economy is in a better position’s than QLD, however their government have assessed the market and taken a more balanced approach in managing the expectations of landlords and tenants, which includes ending the ban on terminating tenancies on 30 September 2020,” Mr Collins said.

“Since the extension in WA was announced on the 10 September, the REIWA Information Service team has been inundated with calls from landlords and tenants who have been negatively impacted by the government's decision to extend the moratorium on all residential tenancies to the 28 March 2021 and are looking for advice from the Institute.

“It is clear from the sheer number of calls to REIWA’s Information Service and the recent media attention, that unfortunately there is a significant number of West Australians unnecessarily disadvantaged as a result of the blanket decision to extend the legislation.” 

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