There has been a review to the residential tenancies act, with new laws being passed in relation to the victims of domestic violence. These new laws have far reaching impacts for landlords, so it is important that you are aware of these reforms and how they may affect you and your investment.
The first thing that needs to be said, is that domestic violence is abhorrent and anyone who is a victim of domestic violence deserves to have the ability to keep themselves and their children safe. We also need to remember that a domestic violence perpetrator is a criminal under the crimes act.
The changes to the act allow a victim of domestic violence (dv) to end their tenancy using new methods. In the past it has been quite difficult for a victim to do this, as we were only able to take a final domestic violence order (dvo) which can sadly take up to a year to obtain through the court system. A victim is now able to provide a certificate of conviction for the domestic violence offence, a final dvo, an interim dvo, a provisional dvo, a family court injunction or a letter on a prescribed form from a medical practitioner. The letter from the medical practitioner is opening up the ability for a tenant to report dv through someone other than the police.
What you need to know as a landlord, is that when a tenant provides our office with this prescribed form, they have the ability to end their tenancy immediately. This may leave any co-tenants and even the perpetrator of the dv as your tenant and at that time decisions will need to be made about how you proceed on from this point.
Any co-tenants will be allowed to have a reduced rent for the next 2 weeks whilst they sort out what they are going to do, giving them a grace period. As a landlord, if you are not able to get the full rent in this time, you will need to speak with your insurer about whether they will cover any shortfall in rent. The victim of dv will also not be able to be held liable for any damage that occurs at the property due to the violence. I know you always hear me bang on about insurances, but this is yet another time when it is important for you to know what you are covered for.
Landlords need to remember that domestic violence is not only considered being between partners and it does not need to happen at the property for these reforms to cover the tenant, they only have to have occurred during this tenancy. The reforms have been brought in to cover a wide range of issues and will cover both the victim and the minor children of any tenancy. The reforms are quite wide reaching and we will need to be open to any situation where someone feels that they are personally under threat and this includes physical, emotional and financial abuse, as these are all considered forms of domestic abuse.
In wrapping up, I want to say that thankfully our office has not had to deal with a lot of this sort of situation up to date, so suffice to say, we will be learning with this as we go.
Below is a link to the Department of Fair Trading website where it sets out all the changes and reforms.
As always, you are able to call me at the office on 63525125 if you wanted to clarify anything regarding these changes, or just to have a chat about how this may affect you as a landlord.
