Page 2362 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2016
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I welcome the additional requirement for landlords to install and maintain, at their own cost, smoke alarms that meet the relevant building code. As we know, smoke alarms save lives. The building code outlines where the alarms are located to ensure they meet safety standards. The creation of explicit “post” condition reports is positive and should, again, reduce the likelihood of conflict and appeals when ending a tenancy agreement.
A small but I think very important change relates to the increased onus on lessors to dispose of tenants’ property in the case of the accommodation being abandoned. While unfortunate, some tenants may leave suddenly for a range of personal reasons and not leave forwarding details or properly clean the property. Making it a requirement that lessors must make reasonable efforts to return essential personal identification and other documents to the relevant government agencies that produced them may save further hardships later on.
In relation to energy efficiency ratings, my colleagues may have already anticipated that, while I support this minor amendment, I am disappointed that it is such a small step. I outlined earlier today the Greens’ views around energy efficiency of rental homes and the like. At the very best, the amendment will make lessors go and look to see if they have an EER certificate lying around, and that is a good thing, but I anticipate that all that will really happen is that most properties will be listed without an EER. There has been a slow process inside government to investigate the possibility of requiring all lessors to undertake an EER for properties prior to listing, something that we had identified in the parliamentary agreement. I can foresee that there will be arguments against that and, ultimately, what remains important is that properties are presented to the market to a standard that we would consider acceptable.
Most members of the Assembly will remember that this has been an issue of importance to the Greens for some time. Members may not know exactly why, so let me spell it out briefly. Firstly, many of our current rental properties in Canberra were built a long time ago and, to be frank, are like ovens in summer and freezers in winter. They have little to no real insulation, are poorly orientated, are full of draughts and prone to mould. This greatly impacts on tenants and is compounding, in particular, for tenants on low incomes. Trying to keep these places habitable is expensive, poses risks to people’s health and generally makes life more difficult than it should be.
Secondly, this lack of efficiency comes at a cost to our environment, of course, in the form of increased emissions as tenants use inefficient heating and cooling appliances and churn through the electricity for little benefit. I would have preferred to see not just a quasi shaming exercise, whereby lessors who do not have an EER must say so in advertisements, but a real move to at least phase in a requirement that all landlords must actually make the changes required that will improve energy efficiency for their tenants. As I indicated on the weekend, the Greens will take a position to the election that will set minimum standards for rental properties that will require landlords to at least provide ceiling insulation and draught sealing, or meet a minimum standard.
On a much more positive note, I welcome the amendments that relate to protecting victims of family violence. The ACT government has moved swiftly in response to tragic deaths in our community in recent times and these relevant clauses are
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