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No-fault evictions banned and break-lease fees capped under sweeping reforms in Victoria
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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That’s fine. The landlords still have the power to increase rent to astronomical levels in order for force unwanted tenants out.
If you can’t evict them, you can make it so they can’t afford to live there.
In Victoria, renters can challenge a rent increase "if they believe the increase is higher than the market range"
See: https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing/renting/rent-bond-bills-and-condition-reports/rent/challenging-rent-increases-or-high-rent
I assume, like with many renter protections, it's a pain in the arse to actually do in practice, but it's there, so they can't just double your rent in one go to force you out.
Also, rent can only be increased once every 12 months in Vic, so landleeches may need to wait months before they can increase the rent by any amount at all.
Not that I doubt there will be some dodgy workarounds. I suspect landlords might try to abuse the "if the owner is moving back in" exemption, because even if there's strong provisions - e.g. the property can't be advertised again for at least 12 months - it still requires someone to be paying enough attention to notice and report any violations.
How much would it cost the Tenants’ Union to have someone tracking properties on the market and flagging any whose tenants have been evicted over the past year on grounds of moving back in, with a view to suing on behalf of the evicted tenants?
That'd rely on tenants reporting their evictions to the tentants' union, and most people aren't engaged with the tenants' union, and even among those who are, relying on tenants reporting would probably be a bit spotty.
If the government is serious about enforcement, I think the logical thing would be for the bond authority to track it. They could be required to log the reason when the bond is claimed, and then their system would flag it if another bond was lodged for the address within the specified period.
If the government doesn't implement a real system for enforcement, though, then yeah, some system through the tenants' union would be better than nothing.
Theres a nice LawTech company in Berlin operating currently where they will take the case for you, in trying to get your rent back to market level, and in Berlin they backpay the difference.
The company Conny.De/en upon a win, take 3months of the rent per month they save you going forward (and in retrospect ).
Plenty of people with wins in my friendship group
For older units, Ontario (in Canada) enforces a very low rent raise cap, probably specifically for this reason.
(Alas, for newer units, the conservative government lifted this, so if one rents a newer unit in Ontario (say built after 2018) then one can still be kicked out by this loophole.)