Liberty Victoria welcomes change to tenancy regulations and calls for urgent clarity for tenants

Liberty Victoria warmly welcomes reports that the regulations will undo the changes that were going to lock tenants into their leases.  These regulations follow calls by Liberty Victoria and tenant advocacy groups for the Andrews Government to undo changes to the laws that unexpectedly locked renters on periodic leases into their leases.

Now more than ever, it is vital that tenants on periodic leases can freely choose where they live.  These changes will ensure that tenants who wish to move in with a struggling family member or who want to move out of poorly maintained housing can do so.

While the announcements are a positive development, Liberty Victoria notes that the exact details of the proposed new regulations have not actually been released. Importantly, using the regulations to change the first lot of emergency laws has become necessary because the Government did not engage in meaningful consultation while those new laws were being developed. We call on the Government to release the proposed amendments ahead of their implementation, and to ensure that proper consultation is undertaken this time.

We also hope that the regulations will be used to rectify several other issues with the legislation.

First, the new laws do not provide certainty for tenants about the minimum notice that they will receive if they are going to be evicted.  This removes a key protection that existed in the law before these emergency laws came in.

Second, the emergency laws have delayed the implementation of planned changes to the Residential Tenancies Act.  Those amendments contained several key protections for tenants and included a requirement that tenants could only be evicted where it is "reasonable and proportionate". Those protections will be more important than ever as we work our way out of this crisis.

For enquiries contact Liberty Victoria at
info@libertyvictoria.org.au or phone 03 9670 6422