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.

 

Housing people with a hoarding disorder - what should a best practice approach look like?

Signing a lease
Robert Mowbray, Older renters' Policy Officer at the Tenants' Union looks at the ways in which hoarding disorder impacts on people's lives and the particular risks renters with a hoarding disorder face. What does a 'best practice' approach to supporting renters with this mental health condition look like? And who can and should be meeting this challenge directly?
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Fire safety in your rented home

Pic setting out smoke alarm requirements
As we are heading back into the bushfire season in NSW we thought it would be a good time to remind us all on how to ensure our homes are bushfire prepared and general fire safety in the home. Olivia and Eloise at the Tenants' Union NSW set out how to reduce fire risks, and the responsibility landlords have to ensure working smoke alarms in rented homes.
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Practical advocacy for social housing tenants

Text reads social housing clinic
Marrickville Legal Centre is home to two tenancy services – the Inner West Tenants’ Advice and Advocacy Service (IWTAAS) and Northern Sydney Area Tenants Service (NSATS). The services provide free, confidential legal information, advice and advocacy to renters living in social and private residential housing.  The services have recently introduced a Social Housing Clinic for residents of Sydney’s inner west and Northern Sydney area.
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Forced out during a health crisis: Renters' stories #MovingMonday

Charlie, TUNSW' Community Education Officer in front of a large stack of moving boxes.
You might have seen via our social media that the Tenants' Union NSW is moving – because we've been evicted! We're an organisation and it doesn't affect our lives - or the smooth running of the TU - too much. But for residential renters eviction is a massive upheaval.
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No country for young renters?

Text summary of post body, showing 6 young people looking at phones
Young renters do it tough. Expensive rents, share houses, problems with flatmates, the risk of eviction, dodgy landlords, worry about bonds and outstanding repairs are just the tip of the iceberg. While renters under the age of 25 make up a significant percentage of tenants in NSW, and are living in some of the worst conditions, our research has shown they do not contact Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services (TAASs) at the same rate as other age groups. We want to change that!
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Using artificial intelligence to improve access to justice

New Age Legal Assistant
Marrickville Legal Centre has launched a new virtual legal assistant named ‘NALA’ to help people with basic legal queries online.
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Outasite Lite 38 – land lease communities news

outasite lite cover
Outasite Lite 38 is winging its way across the internet to subscribers' inboxes. Articles in this issue include, "Community recognition for land lease community advocate", "Appeal afoot – fixed method site fee increases", "Review update", "High Court application", "Advice line extension", and "Holiday period closure".
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Appeal afoot – fixed method site fee increases

Bob Morris
In Outasite Issue 6 (August 2020) we wrote about fixed method site fee increases and mentioned three communities where those methods were being challenged by home owners. Home owners from the Palm Lake Resorts are still awaiting a hearing before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal Appeal Panel, however the Tribunal handed down the decision in Morris and Ors v Kincumber Nautical Village on 3 September.
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Community recognition for resident advocate

Pam
Resident Advocate and Residential Land Lease Communities Forum Member Pam Meatheringham was recognised by Jodie Harrison, Member for Charlestown, in the NSW Parliament on 4 August 2020. In the Community Recognition Statement Ms Jodie Harrison said “I recognise Mrs Pam Meatheringham, a hardworking local of the Charlestown electorate. Pam lives at The Sanctuary in Redhead and has been a tireless land lease community advocate for the residents. Pam serves as secretary and treasurer of the Residential Parks Homeowners Association NSW and works with three other land lease parks in the local area.
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Promise of a big spend on social housing: Did the NSW budget deliver?

Pic of new housing - neighbourhoods, social housing possibly renewal
In early October NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald suggested social and affordable housing would be a priority in the November NSW budget. In this blog we unpack what is required in NSW in terms of 'more social housing', and what was announced in the budget yesterday (17 November 2020).
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