You may be aware that the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill had its Second Reading before Parliament last week. These long-discussed changes to the RTA (Residential Tenancies Act), (reinstatement of ‘no cause’ terminations, changes in notice periods, pet bonds, etc) are well and truly coming and we should know precisely when they will come into force early in the new year, if not sooner.
In good news, some of the changes to the original Bill which were recommended by the Social Services and Community Committee were voted on and all adopted. Key examples of the committee’s recommended changes which have now been adopted in the Bill include:
Clarifying rules for consenting to and refusing requests to keep a pet, by expanding and clarifying grounds for refusing a request, and adding a non-exhaustive list of reasonable conditions that a landlord may attach to their consent;
simplifying the smoking provisions, by allowing the prohibition of smoking inside while allowing for a case-by-case assessment elsewhere on a property; and strengthening protections for tenants by extending existing rules for retaliatory terminations, which prohibit a landlord from terminating a tenancy in response to legal actions taken against them.