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.
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