Rental Market Report: Changes to rental laws
As many of our property owners and renters would already be aware, here at Barry Plant Gladstone Park we have made a concerted effort to keep all our clients up to date with what has been happening with the upcoming changes to the laws that affect the management of rental properties in Victoria. Indeed, we have published several updates on the new rental laws these pages, beginning back in 2018.
With this in mind, we wanted to let you know that whilst many of the reforms to rental laws are not expected to come into effect until July 2020, there are a couple of changes that have begun to make an impact before that date. These include:
Rent increases limited to one per year
From June this year, all new tenancy agreements will be restricted to one rent increase per year, instead of the six-monthly intervals that current tenancy agreements allow. Six-monthly increases will only be allowed for fixed-term tenancy agreements of less than five years that were entered into before June. We are expecting more information about this reform from Consumer Affairs in May.
Long-term leases
As of February 1st this year, the Residential Tenancies Act has applied to all fixed-term tenancy agreements, regardless of length of term. Prior to this date, the Act only applied to tenancy agreements of five years or less.
The transition process
The current Residential Tenancies Regulations 2008 are due to expire in June. The Consumer Affairs Department expects that they will be remade to ensure supporting regulations for the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 remain in place until the reforms under the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2018 are fully implemented.
Keep in mind that if you are at all unsure about the planned changes to rental laws, you can always contact our team of professional Property Management specialists for advice or guidance on 03 9330 1088.