The rollout of changes to renting rules in Victoria has had about as much build up as the Covid vaccine roll out and just like the vaccine it is finally about to happen. (29th March)
The details of the changes don’t make for exciting reading but our PM team are now fully trained on the changes and we are updating our processes to ensure everything is fully compliant. The details are summarised here in the Consumer Affairs link to the changes.
If you and your agent are already looking after your property and tenants then the changes will have minimal meaningful impact but if you don’t abide by the new rules and you end up in a dispute with the tenant the result can be different to what you are use to.
The definition of what constitutes urgent repairs (to be attended to in 24 hours) has been extended to include mould or damp, air conditioning, blinds, hot and cold water, and a few other things. A well-managed apartment with a good tenant relationship will rarely be troubled by these issue.
When selling your apartment we need to give renters longer notice to gain access for inspections which are limited to twice a week for 1 hour and renters can seek compensation for sales inspections of half a day’s rent for each inspection. This may result in owners being more likely to ask the tenant to vacate prior to selling to avoid the cost and restrictions on access.
We already service smoke alarms annually, and now we need to add safety checks on electrical and gas services biennially. We are working with our service providers to achieve a competitive “bulk-buy” rate for Wood Property clients and we don’t expect this cost to be significant.
There has been a lot of media about changes for tenants who want to modify the apartment which is a bit involved to explain it all here but importantly the owner / agent can take an additional bond for the cost of rectifying any tenant works when they move out just in case they don’t do it themselves.
There are some very welcome changes relating to tenants in domestic violence situations to prevent them being trapped in a lease.
We will keep you up to date on the impact of these changes but if you have any specific questions please contact our Director of Property Management Kelly Thomas
