These Landlords Are Crying About “Draconian” New Tenant Laws And Please, Cry Us A River
Check out just how "draconian" they actually are.
Earlier in the month, Daniel Andrews’ government in Victoria announced it would try to reform renting laws ahead of the state’s November election.
All in all, Andrews proposed 130 different changes to rental law. And landlords lashed out in response, calling those changes “draconian”.
But when you actually unpack what those changes are, the backlash looks weak.
That’s because the most significant changes include things like:
- Making it harder for landlords to ban renters from having pets
- Banning rental bidding
- Limiting rent increases to once a year
- Capping bonds at four weeks’ rent
- Requiring every rental property to have a functioning stove
- Requiring every rental property to meet basic safety standards
Oh gosh, “draconian”, that sounds just awful, let me just see… oh pic.twitter.com/KM7v38ncZS
— Dan Golding (@dangolding) August 13, 2018
When these changes were first proposed, the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (which represents around 5000 real estate agents and landlords) said that the laws would decrease the amount of available rental properties “with landlords simply pulling out because it is becoming all too hard and too much of a risk.”
Some of the more recent push back on social media has been ridiculed.
The comments here are w i l d pic.twitter.com/cswTapNIKN
— Dan Golding (@dangolding) August 13, 2018
“I know of one man that has 5 homes within 15 minutes of Sydney and refuses to rent them,” one comment reads. “He bought the 1st one about 40 years ago and he told me that it was rented and he could not stand the damage made so he decided to leave it empty.” Poor guy.
Another commenter said that they would “double the rent immediately” if they had to suffer through allowing pets in their rental property.
It was pointed out that Australia’s rental laws are different to similar countries around the world.
I have to wonder how much of this is an effect of geographical isolation. These people seem to be relying quite heavily on people having no idea what the tenancy laws look like in other parts of the world.
— Katharine Neil (@haikus_by_KN) August 14, 2018
In the United States, tenants can withhold their rent if a landlord fails to take care of important repairs, like a broken heater or stove. In the United Kingdom, landlords similarly need to maintain all gas and electrical equipment. You also can only change the property’s rental price once every two, and only with permission of a central agency.
So yeah. These laws probably aren’t the end of the world.