WA government hopes that changes to rental laws will help balance the power battle between landlords and tenants
The state government says changes to WA's rental laws will help balance the power battle between landlords and tenants. Rent increase will now be limited to once a year, and most tenants will be able to keep pets and make minor modifications. But with tight vacancy rates, not everyone is seeing the benefits.
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00:00As changes to WA's rental laws took effect last week, mother and daughter Alison and
00:05Amelia Clarke hardly noticed.
00:08After living in this home for six years and battling health issues, their landlord's selling
00:13up.
00:14I've never lived anywhere for six years so never had to pack up six years worth of stuff.
00:19Six years ago when we came here, it was because WA had a bunch of affordable, available housing
00:27and now, even here, has the same issues as places like the Gold Coast and Sydney so the
00:38question becomes, where do you go?
00:41There's very few rentals that are affordable to us and obviously it's the same for everyone
00:48else who has lower incomes or who are single incomes and so that we all have to apply for
00:54the same places.
00:56The reforms will limit rent increases to once a year and mean most tenants will be able
01:00to keep pets and make minor modifications.
01:03But if you're like Alison and you can't find anywhere to live, it's not going to be much
01:07help.
01:08Thank you for contacting Circle Green for a start of your journey.
01:14It's an issue staff at community legal centre Circle Green see often.
01:18They're all kind of coloured with this threat of eviction that people face and the advice
01:22we give people is often, here's what your rights are and they don't want to do anything
01:26to enforce them because they know what the alternative is.
01:31Property manager Suzanne Brown has seen those pressures too but believes there's hope ahead.
01:36Investor lending has increased and they're aware of the reforms coming in so that's really
01:41positive signs that investors aren't too spooked about the reforms.
01:46But that will take time to make a difference.
01:49The only thing we have thought of is to save up for a caravan and then ask people if there's
01:56a property that we could put it on.
01:58A difficult situation with no end in sight.