South Australian rental laws have been overhauled with new legislation passed today, amid what advocates describe as a serious housing crisis. The new rules include banning evictions without a reason extending the notice period to end a tenancy and allowing pets. But some are worried the changes don't go far enough.
00:00 When RentRisers left Chelsea Crosby homeless, she was forced to leave her cats behind.
00:07 I would reach out in the night for a cat that wasn't there and I mean it sounds kind of pathetic but I would cry myself to sleep.
00:16 Miss Crosby was repeatedly knocked back from finding a new rental amid a severe shortage of properties.
00:24 To sum it up in one word was just panic, panicking all the time.
00:30 With less than 1% of Adelaide's rental properties vacant, her story is far from uncommon.
00:36 But the government hopes new residential tenancy laws passed by state parliament will help to improve the dire situation.
00:44 The changes will allow tenants to have pets in rental homes if reasonable conditions are met,
00:50 extend the notice period to end a tenancy to 60 days and ban no-cause evictions.
00:57 We need to make sure we are supporting our tenants to stay in their properties longer and have that security and these reforms are key to that.
01:06 But not everyone is convinced the changes will go far enough.
01:10 For one, the new laws won't place any restrictions on rental increases
01:15 and some animal advocates wanted bigger changes to pet restrictions.
01:20 This animal shelter has been inundated with pets surrendered by their owners due to rental challenges.
01:27 And while the operators are happy laws are changing, they say the rules are still too strict.
01:34 We'd really like to see tenants be able to have their pets indoors where they belong. We don't think that's reasonable.
01:39 And with Adelaide having the lowest rental vacancy rate in the country, finding an available property will still be challenging, with or without a pet.
