RentRight: New Mobile App for VIC Tenants

Consumer Affairs Victoria have developed a free mobile app ‘RentRight’, designed to assist Victorian tenants in knowing their rights and responsibilities, whilst also providing various resources to aid renters in managing their tenancy.

This app provides renters with a wealth of information at their fingertips, but provided Property Managers are diligent in keeping up to date with legislation and best practice, there is no need to see the app as a threat or problem.

Some of the key features of the ‘RentRight’ app include:

• Legislated information for renters on topics where renters may have previously been unclear of their rights and responsibilities. Areas such as leases and notices, standards, repairs, and entry rights are clearly and thoroughly explained.

• Helping tenants understand condition reports. The app outlines the actual purpose of the report, and also the importance of being diligent with inspecting the property prior to tenancy. It specifies the requirements of both the landlord and tenant.

• Lodging legal notices for repairs, damages and utilities directly to the property manager. The app can lodge urgent and non-urgent repairs or damage to the premises, with the functionality to include photos in the notice. It can also lodge a legal notice if the tenant has paid utility charges that are not the tenant’s responsibility.

• Various email templates regarding issues such as ending a lease (e.g. before a lease agreement expires, because the premises are unsafe, because the landlord has given notice to vacate) and breaches of duty (e.g. keys have not been provided, the premises have not been maintained in good condition).

• Calculating weekly rent costs, to assist renters determine how much their payments will be, whether they are to be paid fortnightly, monthly, six-monthly or annually.

• Budgeting calculator which is designed to track the various up-front costs that may be involved in renting a new property.

It is vital that Property Managers continue to educate themselves on industry standards, legislation changes and their responsibilities – lucky for our Real+ members it’s easy to stay on the ball.

The various learning modules on the Real+ learning platform help test your knowledge and see which learning areas may need improvement.

You have access to resources such as learner guides to assist in managing arrears, maintaining property and even landlord letter templates, whilst we also aim to keep you informed on industry changes with announcements in the ‘News’ section of the platform.

New Strata Laws in NSW to Match 21st Century Lifestyle

As property managers, I’m sure we’ve all been frustrated with strata rules at some point or another. Thankfully, proposed new laws are finally bringing strata rules into the 21st century, according to NSW Fair Trading Minister, Anthony Roberts.

Whilst changes are still some time away, the media is going to be heavily focused on these changes over the coming months, meaning your landlords will hear a lot about it all. In order to be prepared for their concerns and questions, we need to be aware of the proposed changes and start to think about how this will affect our processes.

These changes have been prompted by the growth in strata title across NSW over the last 50 years, with more than 30% of NSW’s population now either owning, living or working in strata and community schemes, the department proposes to introduce these new laws by mid-2014.

The new legislation will provide a number of options for more modern, innovative and positive outcomes for all – including owners, investors, tenants and managing agents.

Some of the proposed changes will include:

For tenants:

• Smoke drift – no longer will tenants be allowed to smoke on apartment balconies.
• Pets by Default – tenants can no longer be banned from having a pet or require special permission to do so.

For landlords:

• Renovations – such as addressing noisy timber and tiled floors before they are laid, as opposed to the current system where noisy floors can only be addressed after they become a problem.
• Overcrowding, building defects, levies, debt recovery, sinking funds, insurance, money management, dispute resolution, compliance and enforcement will also be covered.

Executive Committees & Voting

• Allow strata schemes to choose alternative methods of attendance at meetings including social media, video and teleconferencing. Postal or electronic votes from owners who are not physically in attendance will also be acceptable.
• Tenants will have the right to attend and participate in meetings of the owners corporation tenants will not be given new voting rights.
• Executive committee members in strata schemes will have to declare conflicts of interest and may be required to remove themselves from voting on issues if such conflicts emerge.
• Strata managers, building managers, caretakers and agents will no longer be allowed to sit on executive committees

• Proxy votes will be restricted in schemes of more than 20 units to 5 percent of the ownership. In buildings of 20 units or fewer, owners will only be allowed to carry one proxy vote.

What does this mean for you?
We will be keeping a close eye on confirmation of the proposed changes and keeping you in the loop of how it will affect your landlords, and what you can do to update your property management processes and office policies.

For more information about the new Strata Reform, check out the NSW Govt Srata Title Law Reform Position Paper or visit this section of NSW Dept of Fair Trading site.