New laws limiting rent increases to once a year were supposed to give Queensland tenants a fairer go, but a loophole has had the opposite effect. Some landlords are opting not to renew leases so they can increase rents with a new tenant leaving some families effectively on the rental roundabout for another place to call home.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 With their lease running out, the Laukow family can't help but feel they've been dealt a bad hand.
00:08 I mean you can't really think about anything else, it's just looking at units, scheduling inspections.
00:14 They've been given notice to leave their home of three years in November.
00:18 We were saying straight away that it's because other tenants are paying more for the same unit as we do.
00:24 It just feels ridiculous that even though we would be happy to pay more.
00:28 Under state government legislation introduced in July, a tenant's rent can be increased only once a year.
00:36 But landlords can boost their returns by having multiple short-term leases.
00:41 It's important to understand that in the majority of cases, property owners actually want long-term tenants.
00:48 It's in their best interest.
00:50 The Residential Tenancies Authority is being contacted frequently.
00:54 It is a popular topic as whenever the legislation changes, people are going to take a little bit of time to adapt to that.
01:01 The rent limit was introduced to help tenants cope with the rising cost of living, but the short-term lease loophole is adding pressure.
01:10 The state government says it's working to further change the law to focus on the property rather than the tenant.
01:16 It's unfortunate that there are people who have exploited what is a loophole, but we'll do everything in our power to make sure that renters are protected.
01:23 The Laukos are still looking for a rental.
01:26 Hopefully, at least for the future tenants, it can be helpful, but for us it's too late anyway.
01:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]