Under the current Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (RTA), a landlord can terminate a tenancy agreement for no reason, by giving the tenant 26 weeks’ notice.

This “without cause” termination undermines tenants’ security of tenure as it means a tenant can be evicted from their home arbitrarily without having breached their tenancy agreement such as by failing to pay rent or damaging the property, or without the landlord having another identified cause for the termination such as wanting to sell, renovate or move into the property.

To support landlords to continue to manage their tenancies effectively, new ‘with cause’ reasons for terminating a tenancy are proposed.

These include termination provisions for where the landlord wants to change the use of the property to another lawful purpose (such as to run a business), where a party to the tenancy has engaged in threatening, harassing, intimidating or abusive conduct which justifies termination of the tenancy and termination provisions specific to the Commissioner for Social Housing and other supported accommodation providers.

The reforms will prohibit solicited rent bidding.

This will be implemented by making it a strict liability offence for a landlord or agent to advertise a property without a fixed rental rate or a landlord or agent to solicit a rent bid.

Requiring landlords or agents to specify a fixed rental rate ensures they will not be able to inadvertently invite rent bids by offering a property with a rent range or by advertising without any rent amount specified.

Tenants will not be prevented from offering rental amounts above the advertised amounts and landlords will be able to agree to accept higher offers where a tenant makes the offer voluntarily.

The reforms will clarify that some food growing and composting activities will be classified as ‘minor modifications.’

This means the tenant will still need to seek their landlord’s consent to the plantings or composting but landlords will not be able to unreasonably refuse consent.

Specifically, the Bill will clarify that a tenant may plant fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs or shrubs (that don’t grow to more than 2 metres) in the garden if existing vegetation or plants do not need to be removed.

They will also be able to install an above ground compost bin or tumbler where there is space to do so.

At the end of the tenancy, tenants will also be required to return the garden to substantially the same condition as it was at the start of the tenancy, allowing for fair wear and tear (unless otherwise agreed with the landlord).

These changes will not apply to the common property of units plans or to the balconies of Class A units as the owners corporation is responsible for managing these areas.

Changes are proposed to support the introduction of minimum standards for residential tenancies in the future.

These changes include:

• Amending the pre-contractual obligations of landlords to require them disclose whether the property meets any minimum standards in force at the time of advertising and in the documentation provided to the tenant at the commencement of the tenancy. In a similar way to with other tenancy advertising requirements, it is proposed that failure to disclose whether the property meets the standard in the advertisement be an offence.
• Creating a right of access to the rental premises to enable compliance with minimum standards, including allowing an initial assessment as to whether the premises meets the standard (if required), undertaking any work required to ensure the property meets the standard and conducting any follow up inspections to ensure work has been undertaken correctly or to assess that the property complies with the standard.
• Giving tenants the ability to terminate the tenancy in circumstances where the property does not meet minimum standards (and an exemption does not apply).
• Giving tenants the ability to apply to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) for a rent reduction for any period where the property was required to meet minimum standards and did not.
• Giving the tenant the ability to apply to ACAT for compensation where minimum standards are not met and that has resulted in additional costs to the tenant.
• Clarifying in the standard residential tenancy terms that the landlord is required to comply with any minimum standards in force (unless an exemption applies).

• Ensuring tenancies can only be ended for an identified reason, providing increased security of tenure.
• Supporting tenants to feel comfortable in their home by supporting them to grow their own food and to compost.
• Preventing lessors or agents from asking prospective tenants to engage in rent bidding.
• Providing tenants with information about whether a rental property meets minimum standards to help inform the tenant about the property they are looking to rent.
• Allowing tenants to seek a rent reduction, end their tenancy or to claim compensation if the property they rent doesn’t comply with any rental standards that are in force.

• Ensuring tenancy termination provisions will be available in legitimate circumstances where landlords may need to end a tenancy – thereby supporting private landlords in the effective management of their investment and supporting social and community landlords to ensure the effective targeting of accommodation support programs to those most in need.
• Ensuring tenants must seek consent before undertaking minor food growing and composting activities and requiring tenant to restore gardens to substantially the same condition as at the start of the tenancy when the tenancy ends.
• Supporting landlords to obtain access to their rental property to ensure it complies with minimum standards.

Feedback received on the Public Exposure Draft Bill will help inform whether any refinements to the proposed Bill are required ahead of the Bill’s introduction into the ACT Legislative Assembly.