00:00 Michelle Mays and her family now happily own their own home, but the ordeal of renting is etched deep into her memory.
00:07 For years, maintenance requests for black mould, broken air conditioners and leaking pipes in a rented house in Alice Springs were largely ignored.
00:16 That just made it sometimes very, very difficult to live, you know, in a property that you had paid a reasonable price for.
00:26 Fed up, Michelle decided to buy. She was granted a short extension to gather a down payment, but was informed her rent would increase.
00:35 With a number of items still neglected by the landlord, she took a stand. When met with resistance, she advised she'd be taking legal action.
00:43 Within 12 hours, I received an email with a notice of eviction.
00:48 Kieran Gale was evicted earlier this year after falling out with housemates, given two weeks to leave, a legal notice period in the NT.
00:57 Contacting a tenancy advice service, he found he had few protections as a renter.
01:02 I feel like I needed grounds to be evicted and I wasn't given any of that.
01:09 So in the Northern Territory, we have the worst protections for renters in Australia by a long shot.
01:15 The NT is the only place in the country without an independent bond board.
01:20 It has the shortest eviction notice period at just 14 days, and there are no limitations on how high rents can be increased.
01:28 It's also the only jurisdiction where rent bidding is allowed.
01:32 There's a lot of insecurity for renters out there right now. We need to change that.
01:36 Five years ago, the NT government committed to reviewing and reforming the Tenancy Act, but Peter says there's been zero progress.
01:44 He's calling for a better deal for renters to be put on the table without delay.
01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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