Proposed NSW rental laws would make it easier for tenants to keep a pet

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Finding a rental property in New South Wales can be hard enough as it is - but having a pet can make it even more challenging. That could soon change under a proposed shake-up of the state's rental laws.

Transcript

00:00New South Wales Premier Chris Mins actually first brought up this idea back in January

00:062023 before he was elected, but now it appears he's really going to try and push this through

00:11Parliament next month.

00:13Currently as it stands, landlords have the right to refuse a request by their tenant

00:17to have a pet on the property with no particular reason, they just have the final word on it.

00:23The exception to this rule is if you have an assistance animal, in that case you are

00:26allowed a pet on the property.

00:28But the New South Wales Government wants to change that, they want to make it easier

00:32for tenants to have a pet in their homes, so what they're doing is introducing a suite

00:37of reforms to the New South Wales rental laws, and one of them is to ensure that landlords

00:42actually have to provide a valid reason as to why they're refusing a pet on the property.

00:47One of those reasons could be if the landlord actually shares the same property as the tenant

00:51with the pet, in that instance they have the upper hand and they could say no to having

00:55that pet on the property.

00:56In another instance, the pet could be in breach of local government regulations, so therefore

01:00it's not allowed on the property in that instance.

01:04As part of this proposed legislation as well, landlords will have a right to apply to the

01:08New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal to challenge if there is a pet on the property

01:14as well.

01:15This forms part of a suite of ideas the New South Wales Government is putting forward

01:18to change the New South Wales rental laws.

01:21Another idea that they're putting forward is that landlords must provide a fee-free

01:26way of paying the rent, so you don't have to add an extra fee for renters trying to

01:32pay the rent.

01:33Now, the New South Wales Government is going to try and push this all through Parliament

01:37in October, pushing this legislation through.

01:41They're just trying to shake things up here, trying to make it a little bit easier for

01:44tenants with their pets and rent in general, but in their words they're also trying to

01:49modernise the market.

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