The Property Investors Council of Australia (PICA) wish to inform you that a campaign lead by the NSW Real Estate Institute has commenced to highlight the potential imbalance between the way Landlords and Tenants are being treated in this state: The REINSW has set up a campaign called ‘Everyone Matters’ to help concerned landlord have a voice in this debate and hopefully to have the legistalation amended to be fairer for all. You can visit the page by clicking here In short landlord’s are calling on the Government to review and amend the Regulation to account for the following matters: - An obligation imposed on the Tenant to exhaust all avenues of Government assistance prior to seeking a rent reduction.
- Amend the definition of “impacted tenant” to include an additional requirement that the Tenant does not have access to unencumbered liquid funds, in all the circumstances, sufficient to pay the rent. It is unjust that a Tenant with enough funds to pay rent is excused from doing so because they have lost their job.
- Introduce a definition of an “impacted landlord” and provide protections to that class of Landlord. To do otherwise simply passes the financial stress of the Tenant to the Landlord who is already in financial stress themselves due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Introduce clear guidelines, setting out which documents the Tenant must provide to the Landlord as part of the application for a rental reduction.
- Introduce a requirement for Tenants to provide evidence of attempts to mitigate the Landlord’s loss caused by a rental reduction.
- Introduce a standard requirement for Tenants to substantiate a rent reduction request to allow Landlords to make a properly informed and fair decision.
- Introduce a requirement and make it clear that a Tenant must continue to satisfy the criteria of an “impacted tenant” not just at the beginning when they request a rental reduction, as appears to be the popular interpretation.
These measure will help ensure that those tenants who can pay their way under the contract they agreed to, do and those that can’t get the appropriate support to help them through this difficult period. PICA strongly supports this initiative and we encourage you to act by sending a letter to the Premier of NSW, following the instructions on the website below: Share Your Voice: http://reinsw.com.au/everyonematters We had great success in reducing the burden on landlord with the Queensland campaign and with your support, we can also provide a strong voice to this NSW campaign too. There is not much time so we need you to action this right now, as parliament is set to sit next Tuesday. If we don’t get our voices heard then, those who own property in NSW can potentially expect to be financially disadvantaged as a consequence. Now is the time to speak up before Parliament sits on Tuesday, 12 May 2020. Take action now – click here to access this information.