Happy anniversary, Residential Tenancies Act

Five years ago on this day, then Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge moved a motion to introduce the Residential Tenancies Bill 2010 into the NSW Legislative Assembly. It made its way through that House, then to the Legislative Council and back again, in just over a week. It was passed without a great deal of fuss, and received its assent on June 17th 2010.

This is important. It means it's almost time for the Act's statutory review provisions to kick in:

227 - Review of Act

(1)  The Minister is to review this Act to determine whether the policy objectives of the Act remain valid and whether the terms of the Act remain appropriate for securing those objectives. 

(2)  The review is to be undertaken as soon as possible after the period of 5 years from the date of assent to this Act.

(3)  A report on the outcome of the review is to be tabled in each House of Parliament within 12 months after the end of the period of 5 years.

A 5-year statutory review is a standard check on whether a new law is achieving what the government of the day hoped it would when it was passed, and whether it is still required.

So... we can expect Victor Dominello, Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, will soon indicate the manner in which Fair Trading NSW will conduct its review of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. It's a good time to reflect on your experiences as a tenant over the last 5 years, and consider if there is anything you'd like to contribute.

We certainly will be. We'll be looking at how the 2010 Act has changed the game in some ways - with a focus on what's been working well, what's been a bit of a mess, and the challenges that remain.

Of course, we've already said a bit on these things - it's what we do. For an idea of what we've been thinking, take a look at our current policy platform: Just renting - Law Reform for Housing Justice. You can check back over the pages of this blog for some of the more nerdy detail...

And if you think there's something missing that we really ought to be putting into the discussion - or if you want to talk with us about your own encounters with renting law as a tenant in New South Wales - please drop us a line.