ADVICE OVER THE HOLIDAY PERIOD

Tenants Advice & Advocacy Services have limited availability over the holiday period. The Tenants' Union will operate a Tenancy Advice Hotline from Wednesday 18/12/2024 until Wednesday 8/1/2025 (excluding weekends and public holidays). The hours of operation are 10am-1pm and 2-5pm.

Get advice on: (02) 8117 3750 or 1800 251 101

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Tenants' Union news

Also check out our blog, Tenant News archive, media appearances, and Housing News Digest.
For factsheets and sample letters, please see Tenancy info.

 

End of fixed term evictions are unfair 'no grounds' evictions: Part 2

Person holding a cat. Quote reads "The biggest problem for me is the instability - feeling unable to make the property your own, your home" - Lauren
End of fixed term without a reason eviction is still without a reason. We explore different kinds of eviction and the best ways to understand them in this second part!
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End of fixed term evictions are unfair ‘no grounds’ evictions: Part 1

MRF Queensland: I spoke up for renters' rights. Online protest.
If you’ve been following the news about recent reforms to Queensland tenancy laws lately you’d be forgiven for thinking there had been a big win for renters we’d somehow missed or forgotten to celebrate. The ABC reported removing ‘eviction without grounds’ was among a raft of changes to the state’s rental laws successfully passed through Queensland Parliament, Channel 7 told its viewers the Queensland reforms would ‘stop evictions without grounds’. Did we miss something?!
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Appeal Panel says site fee increase is fixed method

Kincumber Nautical Village
The anticipation is over. The Appeal Panel of the Tribunal has handed down the decision in Kincumber Nautical Village Pty Ltd v Morris & Ors and it is not good news for home owners. The Appeal Panel allowed the appeal and set aside the original decision. In its reasons for the decision the Appeal Panel stated the principal issue in the appeal was whether a formula for calculating site fee increases, that is made up of a number of components, falls within the meaning of the term “a fixed method” in sections 65 and 66 of the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013
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Further challenges for Margaret Reckless, champion campaigner

Margaret Reckless
In Outasite magazine (July 2021) we reported on Margaret’s ongoing saga with her operator who was busy pursuing a second attempt at terminating her site agreement at the Tribunal. This was happening in tandem with the threats addressed to “the home owner” from third party electricity retailer Humenergy. Humenergy, as we previously reported were invited by Silva Portfolios (operator of Ballina Waterfront Village - BWV) to run their embedded electricity network after Margaret had successfully fought against unlawful overcharging for electricity. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court of NSW.
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Port Stephens Council takes positive action on Development Application notifications

Council
The Tenants’ Union has spoken with many land lease community home owners regarding proposed developments in their communities. Developments can range from small to large scale projects involving infrastructure installation, road repositioning and the relocation of sites and homes. All developments potentially impact the current residents however, those residents often only become aware of a development when work commences, and that is a cause of dismay and concern to many. Port Stephens Council has recognised this in an issue and has taken positive action.
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Through lockdowns, moratoriums and housing crises – inequality keeps growing

Vaccination
Like the COVID outbreak itself, the effects of lockdown are proving worse for people who are already disadvantaged. And housing is a key factor in this growing inequality. While overseas travellers isolate in hotels, and some people own homes spacious enough to be able to follow official guidelines on separate bedrooms and bathrooms, others face very different circumstances. Many renters are in overcrowded housing (Fairfield Champion) or temporary and unstable accommodation (ABC News) because that's all that's affordable in this rental market – this makes it much harder to protect against infection, and follow the lockdown rules. 
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Older women facing homelessness in Australia: from awareness to action

At Risk 2021 From awareness to action, aerial view of houses behind banner
On Friday, 17 September 2021 HAAG organised the online forum, ‘At Risk 2021 Forum’, hoping to move us on from an acknowledgement of the problem of older women and homelessness to real action to address it. The half day forum brought together advocates from across the housing and homelessness sector, researchers, journalists, decision makers and women with lived experience. In this short blog Robert Mowbray, the Tenants' Union's Older Renters' Project Officer, provides a summary of the highlights and key takeaways from the forum.
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NEWTAAS Annual Report 2021

NEWTAAS Advocates
New England and Western Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service works in our region to increase access to the legal system for the most disadvantaged people in the communities we serve; help clients be better informed of their tenancy rights and responsibilities and the options available to them; refer clients to other services when our Service is not able to assist them with their issue; work towards a more just, equitable and accessible society for all people; and ensure staff in our Service maintain high standards of professional conduct and service delivery.
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Make Renting Fair campaign relaunch: When renters organise, we can win!

We’re relaunching our Make Renting Fair campaign, and we want to explore alongside our community: what can we do to build a fairer renting system? What can we learn from successes overseas about how we can organise renters and win?
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Can an owners corporation legally mandate vaccination in a strata community?

Strata apartment block shot from below, blue sky surrounds the block.
Recently, a residential complex in Sydney informed residents it would be requiring that all persons entering the building must be vaccinated, which raises the question can an owners corporation mandate vaccination for residents of an apartment building (owners and tenants)? In this blog Lehana De Silva, Tenants' Union of NSW, and Justin Abi Daher, Marrickville Legal Centre, look at the issue of vaccine mandating in strata communities from a legal perspective.

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