Residential tenancy disputes are dealt with by QCAT under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008. In regional Queensland, the Magistrates Court deals with these disputes, acting as QCAT.
The Housing Legislation Amendment Act 2021 amends the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 and Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Regulation 2009 by:
- improving transparency around managing tenancies and ending tenancies fairly.
- improving protections for vulnerable tenants and residents, including people experiencing domestic and family violence to provide more certainty for tenants and lessors to manage their tenancy arrangements.
- establishing Minimum Housing Standards for rental accommodation to ensure risks to occupant health and safety are minimised; and strengthen existing obligations around repairs and maintenance under the RTRA Act to support enforcement of existing tenancy rights and minimum housing standards for rental accommodation.
- supporting parties to reach agreement on renting with pets by requiring tenants to have lessor consent to keep a pet at the rental property and limiting lessor discretion to refuse these requests to prescribed reasonable grounds and allowing their approval to be subject to reasonable conditions agreed with the tenant.
The Housing Legislation Amendment Act 2021 was assented to on 20 October 2021, with the domestic and family violence provisions commencing immediately (on assent). The pet and ending tenancy reforms will commence on a date to be fixed by proclamation.
For more information about these changes, visit the following:
https://www.rta.qld.gov.au/about-us/legislation/rental-law-reform
https://www.chde.qld.gov.au/about/initiatives/rental-law-reform
*Disclaimer – The above information was taken from the Court website as accurate in December 2021. If any changes are made by the court from that date they may not be reflected in this post.