Page 2067 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991
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a time limit for the refund of bonds. This has created problems for the New South Wales Rental Bond Board and clients over the 14 years it has been operating, and I observe that this is an improvement on the New South Wales position.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Connolly, do you wish to address this further?
Mr Collaery: I think an amendment has been foreshadowed; but, Mr Speaker, I am keen for Mr Connolly to speak to my officers in the next few minutes about it.
Clause agreed to.
Clause 7
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General and Minister for Housing and Community Services) (8.04): Mr Speaker, this is a straightforward procedural provision that changes references to "the lessor" in the principal Act to "the Director" to reflect the fact that it is the director who will be holding bonds. It also allows a lessee to apply for a refund of excess bond moneys.
I should say that the Real Estate Institute of the ACT has suggested that this provision does not recognise the situation of a third party who pays the bond on behalf of the tenant. But my advice is that in such a case the third party would be the tenant who would be formally or informally subletting. It is appropriate that the relationship between the tenant and the subtenant in such a situation be outside the scope of legislation. In other words, if you are going to have a subletting situation, we as a legislature do not want to buy into it.
Clause agreed to.
Clause 8
MR CONNOLLY (8.06): Mr Speaker, I will propose an amendment to section 62AF to insert a new subsection (5A) after the proposed subsection (5). In fact, that is not right. My apologies, Mr Speaker, for the slight confusion. It arises because the Attorney has kindly got his advisers to do some work on the proposed amendment that we circulated, and when I looked at it I thought that we were, in fact, still leaving the error that I want to resolve. I move:
Page 6, line 12, after proposed subsection (5) insert the following subsection:
"(5A) A person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes subsection (1) or (5) is guilty of an offence punishable, on conviction, by a fine not exceeding $500."
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