Renting in Australia – Know Your Rental Rights

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The life of a renter in Australia is far from being an easy one. Still, apart from having a broad range of responsibilities, you should find out that, as a tenant, you can enjoy a variety of perks as well. Therefore, besides from the maintenance obligations and rental costs, the Australian law regarding property rentals presents a set of rental rights as well.

Know Your Rental Rights

Discrimination isn’t permitted

To begin with, the clause of non-discrimination is a legal provision that has the purpose of securing the rights of Aussie tenants. Based on discrimination because of marital status, sexuality, age, race, sex or gender identity, one may sue the landlord if he/she ends the occupancy agreement due to personal likes or dislikes.

According to Australian law, property owners are required to offer the primary accommodation benefits in spite of the elements mentioned above.

The Reasonable Clause

In line with the law of Australian tenancy, the landlord is required to facilitate a rental property fitted for occupancy, meaning that it should be in an acceptable condition. In other words, one of your rental rights is not to deal with cleaning the building and fixing it before actually moving in since that’s the liability of the landlord. As you’ll be paying rent on a regular basis, the landlord ought to respect the responsibilities and obligations prescribed by the law and supply a liveable place.

The right to terminating the tenancy agreement earlier

As an occupant, you have the right to terminate the lease agreement earlier, in the case in which the landlord doesn’t respect his/her part of the arrangement. For example, aspects such as failing to attend to a hardware situation that implies immediate attention, or increasing the rate of the rent, may enable you to terminate the agreement.

In such a situation, one of your rental rights is to ask for the early annulment of the contract. Hence, you can take advantage of this aspect in the case in which your landlord doesn’t provide you with a suitable living space.

The right to be notified about possible safety upgrades

In the case in which your landlord changes the lock to your building without prior telling you, then, another one of your rental rights is to file a complaint with the authorities. As a matter of fact, the law enables you to sue the landlord in the instance in which the lock is replaced without a plausible excuse. In other words, you won’t have to worry about returning home and finding your belongings locked out.

At the same time, note that according to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal, you can request compensation in the case if your belongings went missing because of inadequate security.

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