No-grounds eviction remains in NSW despite election promises

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Every eighteen minutes, someone in New South Wales is served a no-grounds eviction notice. The landlord doesn't even have to give a reason. That adds up to 28,000 households a year having to find a new home in a tight rental market. Labor and the opposition have promised new laws to give renters more protections. But tenants' groups say change has been slow in coming.

Transcript

00:00Businesswoman Aman Solomon was shocked when she received a no-grounds eviction notice

00:08by text.

00:09Hang on here, look what happens.

00:12You just renewed us.

00:15What did we do?

00:16We did nothing.

00:17It was the second time in 18 months she'd been evicted, through no fault of her own.

00:22I'm now, after my experience, living every day in a negotiator, worried that tomorrow

00:27I could have the same thing and tell me, you need to leave again.

00:31As the law stands, landlords in New South Wales can give tenants on rolling leases three

00:36months' notice to leave, at any time.

00:38The Tenants Union says it means renters can be evicted for asking for repairs, or because

00:43the landlord wants to put up the rent.

00:46Fundamentally, it is the existence of not having to give any reason at all and not being

00:50accountable for any reason, not having to give any evidence, or be genuine in the reason.

00:57That is the problem here.

00:59Both major parties went to the last election promising to outlaw no-grounds evictions.

01:03But 15 months later, nothing has changed.

01:06Since then, nearly 37,000 renters have been evicted without grounds.

01:11Earlier this year, Greens MP Jenny Leong introduced a private members bill to ban the practice.

01:17Neither the government nor the opposition supported it.

01:20We know that this is a complex reform in many ways, but it's a reform that we have to get

01:24done and we have to get right.

01:26The government says it's committed to change.

01:28What we want to do is take a considered and methodical approach to ensuring that the policy

01:34and the regulations that we table in the parliament are balanced and they're fair.

01:39The matter has been referred to a committee, which is due to report back in September.

01:43By then, government data indicates another 6,500 renters will have been evicted.

01:49For renters like Aman, change can't come soon enough.

01:56For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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