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TENANTGLOBAL

I N T E R N A T I O N A L U N I O N O F T E N A N T S ’ Q U A R T E R LY M A G A Z I N E January 2007

C O N T E N T S

T H E M E : AUSTRALIA

Chronicle: Outdated tenancy

laws in Australia

Penny Carr, TUQ

page 2

Terry Burke: Australian Rental in

context

page 3-6

Tenant protection,

and security of tenure

– a comparison

page 7

Tenant protection in Canberra

page 8-9

A West Australian Perspective

page 10

Landlords beware: The Tenants

Union of Victoria

page 11

Tenants’ Union of Queensland,

TUQ

page 12-13

UN Special Rapporteur: Severe

shortcomings in Australian

housing conditions

page 14

From a tenant perspective

page 15

Notices

page 16

IUT Congress, September 2007

page 16

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P.O. Box 7514103 92 Stockholm, Sweden

Tel +46-(0)8-791 02 24/791 02 25Fax +46-(0)8-20 43 44

E-mail: info@iut.nu Website: www.iut.nu

Publisher andEditor: Magnus Hammar

January 2007Publication Design: Cinna Gross

Calendar

For more information: www.iut.nu/conferences.htm

IUT member organisations in:

AustriaAustraliaBelgium

BeninBosnia-Herzegovina

Canadathe Congo (Dem. Rep.)

CroatiaCzech Republic

DenmarkEcuadorEnglandEstoniaFinlandFrance

GermanyGreece

Hungary Ireland

IndiaItaly

Japan Latvia

Macedonia, FYR the Netherlands

New ZealandNigeriaNorway Poland

PortugalRomaniaScotland

Serbia and MontenegroSloveniaSlovakia

South AfricaSpain

SwedenSwitzerland

TanzaniaTogo

UgandaUSA

Wales

Outdated tenancy laws in AustraliaIt is easy to assume that all developed countries have strong and protective laws respectingtenants’ rights. Australia just recently received a visit from the IUT Secretariat in Sweden,and the stark contrast in tenancy rights and housing systems was brought home to us all.

Amongst other engagements, Magnus Hammar addressed a room full of Queenslandtenant advocates on the issue of security of tenure. Many of us sat in awe of the security oftenure of some of our European counterparts, eg. Swedish tenants, whose tenancies aresubject to succession laws. In Queensland, a tenant can be evicted ‘without grounds’ and atrelatively short notice. For example, at the end of a fixed term agreement a tenant can begiven a two week ‘without ground’ notice to leave, or, if they are on a month to monthagreement, with two months notice.

Further, private rental market properties interchange with owner occupied properties.This means, if a tenant’s home is sold, the new owner may evict them if they wish to moveinto the property. The only protection for a tenant in this situation is that they cannot beasked to leave if they are on a fixed term agreement. Again, this contrast to some Europeancountries where caveats prevent rental market property becoming owner occupied.

Home ownership has always been known as the ‘Great Australian Dream’, but this dream isslipping out of the reach of many people as affordability declines. The private rental markethas now become the long term or permanent tenure for particular groups of renters, someunable to get into homeownership, others unable to access social housing as it becomeshighly targeted and welfarised. Our tenancy laws are outdated, and reflect a time where theAustralian private rental market was a stepping stone from one’s parental home and intohomeownership. We must reform our laws.

However, tenant advocates have strong opposition fromproperty owners and the real estate industry. At a recentmeeting, the industry proposed reducing all notice to leavetime periods to two weeks, regardless of who was servingthe notice.

The Tenants’ Union of Queensland will be lobbying hardfor the removal of without ground evictions in the currentreview of our Residential Tenancies Act!

Penny CarrStatewide Co-ordinator, Tenants´ Union of Queensland

Jan 31-Feb 1: Social Housing: A tool for EU cohesion. CECODHAS, Brussels

February 7: Measurement of Homelessness at EU level. European Commission, Brussels

March 28-31: Informal Settlements. Organised by UN-ECE. Athens, Greece

April 10-11: Rental Housing Educational Conference and Expo. Santa Clara, California, USA

April 18: Housing policy as a driving force. Organised by EHF and FEANTSA. Dublin, Ireland

May 28-30: Annual meeting of the Swedish Union of Tenants, Kiruna.

May 31 - June 1: National Assembly of the German Tenants‘ Union, in Stuttgart.

June 25-28: Sustainable Urban Areas. ENHR conference. Rotterdam, the Netherlands

August 3-5: TPAS Annual Conference. Birmingham, England

Aug 30 - Sept 1: APNHR: Transformations in Housing, Urban Life and Urban Policy. Seoul, Korea

September 12-14: The 7th Australasian Residential Tenancies Conf. Melbourne Australia

September 17-19: 68:th Session Committee on Housing and Land Management, UN-ECE, Geneva

September 21-23: IUT Congress, Berlin Germany, see page 16

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Historical OriginsAustralia’s history of white colonisationand settlement is very recent. In 1788there was no white population and nofixed settlements or housing as conven-tionally thought of.

The growth of the Australian colo-nies was focused on city ports that serv-iced the expanding rural and miningsector. Contrary to ‘outback’ images,Australia from its colonial inception hasalways been a highly urbanised societywith its demographic growth fuelled byinternational migration. Without thebaggage of historical privilege and en-trenched property ownership found inother societies, and with a hinterlandrich in rural and mineral resources, theAustralian economy boomed in thenineteenth century. By 1900, alongwith Canada and the USA, it was oneof the richest countries in the world in

Australian Rental

terms of per capita income. Moreover,the dispersion of wealth and incomewas broad by the standards of the time,with a smallish industrial proletariat.

The housing system that emerged inthe colonial cities of Sydney, Hobart,Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane andPerth was therefore one which adaptedto the lack of existing landownershiparrangements, this urban dominance,rapid population growth, and an afflu-ence created less by a burgeoning man-ufacturing sector than by mining andrural development and the associatedfinancial and related services whichthey required.

Everyone invested inpropertyIn terms of housing form, this meantthat there was no requirement for ten-

Public governmental housing in Melbourne

ement housing to serve a poor manu-facturing working class. The typicalworking-class housing in nineteenthcentury cities was single or two storiedterrace housing, while middle-class -and a growing proportion of affluentworking-class - housing was single de-tached and remained so into the twen-tieth century. In 1933, for example,only 4.8 percent of the national stockwas apartments or flats. This has im-portant implications for the nature ofAustralian private rental. The entrycosts for investment in a single cottageare very different to those of a block oftenements in New York or Glasgow orapartments in London, Paris, Stock-holm, or Berlin. The former meant thatinvestment was possible by people ofrelatively modest means where the lat-ter meant you had to be rich or a com-pany investor.

in Context Prof. Terry Burke, Swinburne University of Technology

T H E M E AUSTRALIA

4

Private rental seen assecondary to ownership,from the startThe general affluence of Australians alsoaffected tenure. Thus as early as 1880at least half the housing stock was owneroccupied, a proportion not reached inmost other urban societies until the sec-ond half of the twentieth century. Thistenure arrangement was fuelled by thelack of a gentry, which meant that theabundant land was an ‘open go’ area forproperty speculation and development.Facilitating this speculation was theemergence of financial institutions(building societies) that promulgatedfor the affluent working class a notionof a home owning democracy. Manynew immigrants also saw ownership asa symbol of escape from the insecurityand harassment of private rental in thesqualid industrial cities of Britain fromwhich they came.

The effect of this was to cast privaterental into a secondary status to own-ership, almost from the inception of theAustralian housing system. It can beargued that this reduced the politicalpotency of any problems in the privaterental sector – tenant issues being large-ly neglected – and minimized the in-terventions that have characterized thesector in Europe or even the USA. Infact, with the exception of relativelyminor periods of rent control duringthe two World Wars, the major policyinterventions have only evolved in re-cent times, and are not designed to con-trol any perceived problems inherent tothe sector but to actually facilitate itssustained provision, e.g., negative gear-ing, strata titling.

Table 1 trace the private rental sec-tor’s declining importance from thenineteenth century up to the 1980swhen its relative tenure position beganto improve. Although private rental by1981 had declined to a low of 19 percent, it remained a robust part of the

Australian housing system, with little ofthe debate that has occurred in parts ofEurope – particularly the UK – on howto revive the sector or what was its ap-propriate role. While the decline in pri-vate rental in the early post-war yearsechoes similar trends for the UK andparts of Europe, although not to thesame degree, it was not necessarily forthe same reasons.

– Firstly, that the social housing sec-tor has never been allowed to expandbeyond a residual level, around 5 per-cent, and even this is considered to betoo high by some property interests.This means that, unlike in many Eu-ropean societies, private rental does nothave to compete with social landlords.Its real competitor being the homeownership sector.

– Secondly, it means that interven-tions – whether in the form of residen-tial tenancy legislation, rent controls,and taxation or housing allowances –in the sector have been limited by in-ternational standard and weighted infavour of property interests.

– Thirdly, it means that the behav-iour of both tenants and landlords ismediated through labour markets, wel-fare systems and finance systems thatare structured around the requirementsof market liberalism.

No federal housingpolicyIn any analysis of Australian housing,it is important to recognise that Aus-tralia has a federal system of govern-ment but unlike the USA, Canada orGermany it is one where the third tier,the local government level, has a muchsmaller role. The federation of the col-onies in 1901 created a constitutionalenvironment of significant implicationfor the housing system and for the pri-vate rental sector. The federal constitu-tion has meant that most of the lawsapplying to housing – for example, res-idential tenancy legislation, propertylaw, building regulations and planningcontrols – are state or local governmentbased, with the states protecting theirrights vigorously.

Unlike in the USA or Canada, thereis no largish federal agency responsiblefor policy directions in housing, withthe result that there is nothing whichresembles an Australian housing poli-cy, either generally or for private rent-al. One reason for the larger federal gov-ernment role in Canada and the USAis the larger local government role in-cluding much housing provision. Whileprovided at the local level it is federallyfunded.

Moreover, as most of our states areof enormous size – the state of West-ern Australia is five times as big as

Private rental

Home Ownership

Public Housing

Other

1911

42

46

0

12

1933

40

54

0

6

1954

30

63

4

3

1971

22

69

6

3,5

1981

19

68

5

8

1991

20

72

6

2

2001

23

68

5

4,5

Table 1. Tenure trends, Australia 1911 - 2001, Source ABS

The Institutional contextThe characteristics of the Australianprivate rental sector, as with any othercountry, is moulded by the nature ofthe institutional environment in whichit operates. At the macro level the twokey institutional contexts are that; Aus-tralia is a market liberal society with anemphasis on the market, small govern-ment, low taxes and individual proper-ty rights and consumer choice and sec-ondly a federal system of government.

At a more micro level, this institu-tional environment takes in the regu-latory, and policy environment relatingto taxation, planning and building reg-ulation, the legal system, including res-idential tenancy legislation, the welfaresystems (e.g. the nature of benefits), thefinance system and the characteristicsof exchange agents such as real estateagents.

Private rental overrunspublic rentalAs a market liberal society, Australiaplaces considerable faith in the marketand is highly protective of individualproperty rights and relatedly of homeownership which, it is argued, promotesvalues of individualism self-help andconservatism consistent with the re-quirements of such a society.

The implications for the privaterental sector of being embedded in sucha society include;

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Spain, Queensland is three times thesize of France – it is difficult to talkabout the Australian rental market, asit really is one of market diversity basedaround the distinctive attributes of eachstate.

Households on thepoverty lineAs a market liberal society, Australia hasa lean welfare system by internationalcomparisons, with pensions and bene-fits providing the most minimal safetynet. For example, 2004 OECD data onunemployment benefits as a percent-age of the average worker’s incomeshows Australia near the bottom withbenefits equivalent to 24 percent, com-pared to 56 percent in Canada, 59 per-cent in Germany, and 70 percent in theNetherlands.

Traditionally this has meant that ahigh proportion of households exist on,or just above, the poverty line, the bulkof whom – given a residual public hous-ing sector – live in the private rentalsector. Since the early 1980s rental as-sistance has been introduced to top upthe minimal incomes provided by pen-sions and benefits, but this assistanceis far from generous and still leaves mostlow income renters well short of the30% rent to income affordabilitybenchmark.

Massive increase inneed for rent assistance Rent assistance in Australia had its or-igins in ‘supplementary assistance’which was introduced in 1958, butwith very limited eligibility, mainlywidows and single aged pensioners. In1963 there were only 9,518 recipientsof rent assistance. At the time, this ap-proach was seen as a cheaper optionthan a more general pension increase.The scheme remained in place until1983 when the newly elected Labourgovernment expanded it to include al-most all social security pensioners andother beneficiaries, as well as making itan entitlement rather than a discretion-ary scheme. Rental assistance is not de-signed to reduce rental outlays to somebenchmark – for example, 25 per centof income – but simply to improverental affordability for social security re-cipients.

With the 1980s coinciding with agrowth in numbers of old age pension-ers and supporting parents – and, to-wards the end of that period, a sharpincrease in unemployment – the num-bers of recipients expanded almost ex-ponentially. In 2005 total outlays of therental assistance program were A$ 1.8billion compared to A$210 million in1984.

Low income householdsdirected to private rental Effectively, private rental assistance hasnow replaced public housing as themajor platform for low income hous-ing assistance in Australia. However,because it is not overly generous, manyrecipients are still likely to be in or nearpoverty even after its receipt. Impor-tantly, it is seen and managed as an in-come support program; unlike rentalassistance in Canada, the USA (Section8) and most Northern European pro-

grams there is no link to any supply sidesubsidies.

Exchange AgentsAbout 60 per cent of rental propertiesare managed by private estate agents,with the remainder being self-managed,that is, landlord managed. Estate agentshave two functions. The first and dom-inant one is to match sellers and buy-ers of residential property. The other isto manage the rent roll for individuallandlords who pay a fee of around 7 to9 per cent of the gross rent for this serv-ice. To be an estate agent requires min-imal education and training, and whattraining there is largely focuses on thesales role rather than the rental role. Inmany cases, this means that privaterental sector manager, in contrast to theprofessional property managers in theUSA or Europe, tend not to be partic-ularly professional, and many are in-deed amateurish in managing this com-plex and fraught housing sector.

New roads for Australian housing policies?

T H E M E AUSTRALIA

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Contract terminationwithout reasonThe short-term leasing that character-ized nineteenth century English law stillholds today. Leases are rarely longer thana year, typically six months, with noticeto quit ranging from two weeks to threemonths. They can be terminated for anyreason, so long as the minimum noticeis given. Tenants normally have the rightto give notice at any time before the ex-piry of the contracted lease, but mayhave to pay for any costs incurred be-cause of this, for example, vacant rentperiods. They must lodge a bond equiv-alent to four weeks rent prior to movinginto the property, which is returnableupon a condition report at the end ofthe lease. This has been and still is amajor source of conflict, as many land-lords and estate agents concocted a ra-tionale for not returning a bond whichthey held in trust on behalf of the ten-ant. Most states have now establishedrental bond boards, which are independ-ent authorities for managing bonds.

Tribunals service landlordsIn most states, rental disputation is han-dled by special tribunals rather by thantraditional courts, for example, magis-trate’s courts. The objective where pos-sible is to deal with conflict throughmediation rather than tribunal rulings.Despite beliefs that such tribunals wouldbe used by tenants to make the life oflandlord harder, the bulk of residentialtenancy appeals in Australia are madeby landlords, and then largely to termi-nate possession.

ConclusionFor those of social democratic persuasion, the sector appears to be fundamen-tally flawed. The large numbers who are experiencing an affordability prob-lem, the discrimination (sometimes linked with the lack of professional man-agement), the non-targeting of tax subsidy, the related inability to ensure sup-ply of lower end rental housing (particularly in non-metropolitan and fringeurban areas) and the gentrification of stock in inner urban areas are used asevidence to indicate that it is a problem sector.

More saliently, its very growth can be pointed to as a problem, given thatthis has occurred concurrently with greater after-housing poverty. The oppor-tunity cost of an expanded private rental sector, with all its tax subsidies andrental assistance, may be seen as one of forgone social housing. Would therehave been less poverty, fewer affordability problems and less discrimination ifthe social sector had been encouraged to expand over the last two decadesrather than considerable indirect subsidy of private rental? Further the onto-logical security provided by ownership and public housing is removed by pri-vate rental growth and replaced by the uncertainly of short-term leases andthe trade-off of renting in amenity rich areas versus owning in amenity poorareas.

Seduced by globalisationIt can be argued that the resurgence of private rental is symbolic of a recastingof the housing system into one more suited to the Commonwealth govern-ment’s objective of making Australia a globalised market liberal economy.Like all industrialised capitalist societies, Australia has been seduced by theimperatives of globalisation and the need to restructure to create greater inter-national competitiveness. In a market liberal society like Australia, this hasmeant financial and labour market deregulation, weakening of trade unions,privatisation, substantial restrictions on the role of government, includingtighter targeting of welfare, and greater dependence on private finance andfree markets. Housing systems can complement or weaken the ability to im-plement such strategies, depending on the form of the system. Private rentalmay be seen as the post-modern tenure form – the one that meshes best withthe flexibility and diversity of a globalising post-industrial society. By con-trast, home ownership and public rental can be seen as representing modern-ist tenures which have outlined their usefulness.

Flexibility, for whom?There is little doubt that the private rental sector is the most flexible housingtenure in terms of consumption and investment; both consumers and inves-tors can exit and enter it more readily than either home ownership or socialhousing. While investors appreciate such flexibility, there is doubt about alltenants want such flexibility. For affluent professionals of the informationsociety, private rental may suit their need for a global lifestyle, unlike themore inflexible ownership sector. For the other tenants of a restructured econ-omy and society who are already experiencing substantial job insecurity, whatthey want is housing security. But, because of the institutional structure of theprivate rental sector, security is not an option. Nor is adequate housing af-fordability, given the low levels of rental assistance. Greater attention has tobe given to resolving the affordability and security problems of the sector.

Extract from Professor Terry Burke’s presentation for the Tenants’ Union ofQueensland’s´ 20th anniversary conference, October 2006.

Prof. Terry Burke speaks at the 20thanniversary of the Tenants´ Union ofQueensland, flanked by Robin Zakharovfrom the Policy Practice

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Table shows the level of tenant protection in Australia com-pared with a selected number of countries in Europe. The row“notice to quit” gives the days and months for fixed term long-er contracts (1 year >), or short term contracts (1, 3, 6 months).Tenants in countries like Sweden, Netherlands, Germany andDenmark enjoy continuous prolongation of the contract, bothin private and social rental.

For reasons already described in Prof. Burkes´ article, thelevel of tenant protection, and security of tenure, is very weakin all of the eight Australian states. It is clear that the Austral-ian housing policy favours homeownership, as no one wouldvoluntarily chose to live as a tenant under such insecure condi-tions. For most Europeans it is hard to imagine how it wouldbe like to live under these short-term conditions, with 6-12month leases, and never be sure whether if you will be allowedto stay for another year. Maybe it is ok for a student, or forsomeone working in Australia for a shorter period, but neverfor households – from one person households to families withchildren. And with contracts that allow the landlords to termi-nate the contracts without grounds – it is not difficult to im-agine what kind of relationship there is between tenant and

Tenant protection, and degree of security of tenure, Private tenure

landlord; Not too many question asked and you definitely don’twant to been seen as a troublemaker – even if it is just askingthe landlord to repair the railings or to clean the commonpremises from garbage.

Also, it is a bit surprising to learn, from Prof. Burks’s article,that the rent tribunals are not used by tenants, but rather bythe landlords – to terminate rental contracts!

Tenant protectionSo, tenants in Perth, Brisbane or in Melbourne are quite ex-posed species. But helping hands are available even in the jun-gle. There are tenant organisations in all eight Australian states.They differ slightly from each other, but all provide services forand tenants such as consultation, on telephone or by appoint-ment. As being a very large country, each organisation also runlocal or regional tenant advice services.

www.iut.nu/members/australia.htm gives you contact information toall eighth Australian tenant organisations, and also a link to publichousing in Australia 2005/2006, data report. Also, a more detailed of the above table is found on the IUT website,under Fact & Figures.

Country

AUSTRALIA, W. Australia

AUSTRALIA, Queensland

AUSTRALIA, Canberra, ACT

AUSTRALIA, Victoria

Austria

Belgium

Czech Republic

Denmark

England

Finland

France

Germany

Netherlands

Slovenia

Sweden

L: 60 days

L+T: 2 weeks – 2 months

L: 8 – 26 weeks

L: 14 days / 60 d / 120 d

T. 14 / 28 days

L+T: min. 1 month, average

3 months

L+T: 1 month

L+T: 3 months

L: 12 months

T: 3 months

L: 28-112 days

T: >2 year lease: 28 – 56 days

L: 3-6 months

L: 6 months ( 3 year lease)

T: 3 months

L+T: 3 months

L+T:3 months

L+T: 60–90 days

L+T: 3 months

Length of lease

6 – 12 months, then

month to month lease

6 –12 months, then month

to month tenure.

6–12 months

12 months, then month

to month lease

min 3 years

3, 6 or 9 years

3 years – unlimited

Continuous prolonging

3 or 6 months, renewal

fixed term, often 1 year

1 – 3 years

Continuous prolonging

Continuous prolonging

1 year, or unlimited

Continuous prolonging

Landlords reasons to give

notice to quit:

Without grounds

Without grounds

Without grounds

Without grounds

Rent arrears, misconduct and

family use.

Without grounds

Misconduct, rent arrears, family use,

posses more than one flat, etc.

Personal or family use, rent arrears,

demolition, misconduct, .etc.

Anti Social Behaviour, rent

arrears, misconduct.

L-lord selling of flat, family use, mis-

conduct, break of contract rules.

Rent arrears, misconduct and

family use.

Personal or family use, or more econ.

profitable use.

No termination, except for rent

arrears and misconduct.

Rent arrears, misconduct + 13 more

reasons for eviction.

No termination, except for rent

arrears and misconduct.

Notice to quit

Landlord Tenant

Naming and shaming by M. Hammar, IUT

T H E M E AUSTRALIA

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The Tenants’ Union (TUACT) is one of the primary pro-

viders of information, advice and education to tenants

in the Australian Capital Territory, ACT.

Tenancy issues have been important for ACT residents formany years. However, in relation to other jurisdictions ten-ant activists were late in forming an organisation. In 1990,galvanised by impending legislation to set up the RentalBond Office, a community meeting of tenants and otherconcerned people decided to establish a group to representpublic and private tenants in the ACT. In 1993 the TUbecame incorporated.

The first major achievement for the TU was success inobtaining a small seeding grant that allowed the organisa-tion to rent some premises, publish some information leaf-lets and begin to think seriously about opening for busi-ness. Then the Capital Territory Government agreed thatinterest earned on tenant bonds should be spent for the col-lective good of tenants, and that an independent tenants’advice service would be an appropriate use for the money.

Perseverance does it!The opening of the Tenants’ Advice Service in August 1994represented the culmination of a lot of hard work behindthe scenes. Since 1994 the TAS has provided the focus formuch of TU work, with TU employing staff as TAS work-ers. TU membership consists of private, public and com-munity housing ten-ants, occupants ofother forms of ac-commodation aswell as individualsinterested in tenancyissues.

Funding fromrental bondsThe TU is a commu-nity legal centre pro-viding information,advice and referralthrough our part-time phone adviceline. We also under-take community le-gal education, pro-duce written infor-mation, conductworkshops and coor-dinate annual weekof activities linked to

International Tenants’ Day. Another important aspect of ourwork is general advocacy and law reform. We are fundedthrough the Department of Justice and Community Safety,by a proportion of the interest earned from bonds lodgedwith the Office of Rental Bonds.

NATO, for national housing influenceThe TU is a member of the National Association of Ten-ants’ Organisations, NATO. NATO is an unfunded group,network, with members from most states, whose objectiveis to assist one another ,which is a vital aim considering thatmany tenants groups are seriously under-funded and un-der-resourced.

NATO’s objective is also to develop consistent nationalstrategies regarding tenancy and respond to national initia-tives impacting on tenancy. Through NATO Australian ten-ant organisations work towards providing a coherent voicefor tenants on national issues.

Weak security of tenure in ACTAs the Narrabundah issue highlights (see separate article)lack of security of tenure is significant ongoing problem forpeople renting in the ACT. Our legislation provides for ter-mination without cause for leases not in a fixed term, theamount of notice is quite long, 26 weeks, however this doesnot avoid many problems for tenants. Disreputable land-lords and and their agents can use the threat of termination

as a way to get ten-ants to sign newleases or agree tohigh rent increas-es. Tenants are alsofearful of takingany action againstlandlords becauseof the possibilityof retaliatory evic-tion. Additionally,a landlord can ter-minate a periodictenancy if they, ora family member,or someone theyknow, want tomove in to thepremises, or they

Tenant protection in the CapitalBy Deborah Pippen, Canberra

Advice workerHelen Sexton,Deborah PippenTU-ACT co-ordinatorand Shae McCrystal,TU-ACT President

9

Narrabundah Long Stay Caravan ParkAn issue that received a significant amount of community in-terest this year was the future of the Narrabundah long staycaravan park. The issue emerged when over 100 residents oflong term park, previously owned by ACT Government, was”sold” to community organisation, for just A$1 in 2000. ThePark was then resold to developer for over A$2 million.

The developer immediately issued Notices To Vacate to allresidents. Residents sought help and were very proactive, andthey generated a great deal of community support throughnetworks and the media. The protesting residents were ableto get support from the ACT Community Legal Centre net-work to fight the evictions. However in the last two weeks pri-or to the first action, the Government was successful in nego-tiating a land swap with the developer and the park will revertto ACT Government ownership again. We are still to see finaldetails, and are currently working with the residents on finali-sing their occupancy agreements. But it looks like a win forthis unique ACT community!

Weak security of tenureAs the Narrabundah issue highlights, lack of security of tenureis a significant ongoing problem for people renting in the ACT.Our legislation provides for termination without cause for leasesnot in a fixed term, the amount of notice is quite long, 26 weeks,however this does not avoid many problems for tenants. Dis-reputable landlords and their agents can use the threat of termi-nation as a way to get tenants to sign new leases or agree tohigh rent increases. Tenants are also fearful of taking anyaction against landlords because of the possibility of retaliato-ry eviction. The TU consistently urges the need to remove termi-nation without cause.

Additionally, a landlord can terminate a periodic tenancy ifthey, or a family member, or someone they know, want to movein to the premises, or they wish to sell or renovate the property.The tenant receives 4 weeks notice and has to find a newhome in our very tight and expensive rental market. The tenanthas no recourse, the lease will terminate and if they don’t movethey will be evicted.

wish to sell or renovate the property. The tenant receives 4weeks notice and has to find a new home in our very tightand expensive rental market. The tenant has no recourse,the lease will terminate and if they don’t move they will beevicted.

Bond money causes conflictsOur clients come from a diverse range of backgrounds rang-ing from people from very poor disadvantaged circumstancesin public housing and substandard private rental to welleducated, well resourced tenants in top end rental housing.The most common issues are disputes in relation to: bond,repairs, rent increases, tenant’s liability when terminatingearly and termination by the landlord or their agent. Theadvice calls are often long and the issues complex.

Public housing well above the averageIn 2004 the altogether 342,300 residents in the Capital Ter-ritory occupied more than 123,000 private dwellings. Ofthese, 29 % were rented properties; the national averagewas 26%. In 2004 the average household size in the ACTwas 2.5 people. Using this figure we can estimate that therewere approximately 89,000 people in rental accommoda-tion in Canberra.

In June 2006 public housing comprised approximatelynine per cent of all dwellings in the ACT, which is almosttwice as much compared to other Australian States.Housing ACT Company managed some 11,500 proper-ties, approximately 32 per cent of rental stock. Other ten-ures covered by our tenancy legislation include people incaravan parks, boarders and lodgers and those in studentaccommodation. It is hoped that next year we will havereliable figures for these groups.

Tenancy Tribunal, but not for tenants!Tenancies are regulated by The Residential Tenancies Act1997 and tenancy disputes go to the Residential TenanciesTribunal. Unfortunately our Tribunal figures reflect the restof Australia and very few tenants access the Tribunal – onlyfive per cent of cases are applications from tenants.

Small, but effectiveTU is a small service with two Advice Workers togetherwith an Executive Officer and a part-time AdministrativeOfficer. In the last year, 2004/05, our service reported 3,300phone contacts with ACT tenants on tenancy/housing is-sues. In addition to this we have direct contact with a sig-nificant number of people renting via our other activities.

Deborah Pippen is the Executive Officer, Tenants’ Union ACT,Canberra.

T H E M E AUSTRALIA

10

About 70 percent of WA’s populationlives in the capital city Perth or in largeregional towns, mostly along the coastline. Outside the cities and regionaltowns, people are generally involvedin farming or mining. While many in-digenous people live in large centresthere are also many who live in smallcommunities in very remote areas ofthe state.

Negative impact fromfinancial boomIronically, the issues of greatest con-cern to tenants in WA relate to the verystrong resources boom that WA is cur-rently enjoying. Global sales of iron-ore, gold, nickel and other minerals hasled to the boom and in turn led to aninflux of new interstate and overseasresidents and a shortage of housing.

House prices have risen 40% in thelast year, rental prices have risen ac-cordingly and there is enormous com-petition for the limited vacant rentalproperties. From June 2005 to Septem-ber 2006, median rents in Perth in-creased from A$189 to A$250 perweek, or from 115 to 152 Euro. Andby the end of 2007 tenants are expect-ed to be paying A$300 per week, or182 Euro, or almost a 60 percent in-

crease since 2005! The consequence isthat the most vulnerable in our society,those on low incomes, are having realdifficulty securing and maintaining rea-sonable accommodation.

Indigenous people are the worst hit.In 2005 Shelter WA reports that indig-enous people accounted for more thana third of homeless persons and morethan a quarter of homeless households.

Modest demands formore public housingThis situation is exacerbated by a de-crease in public housing stock, whichwould normally be targeted to vulner-able people. TAS and a number of oth-er community service agencies are cur-rently lobbying the government to re-direct some of the monies receivedthrough the boom to restoring publichousing to 6% of total housing stock.

Remote “control”This combination of geographic anddemographic features makes it a chal-lenge to equitably deliver effective serv-ices to tenants. The main strategies usedto overcome this include a state-widetelephone advice line, the provision ofrelevant publications and structuredtraining to generalist community work-ers who assist tenants across the state.Tenant advocates from remote regionssometimes fly to Perth for training andmeetings but this can be very costly.TAS conducts training for workers inremote regions. Technology is also used

West Australian PerspectiveBy Rob Spinks, Executive Officer, Tenants Advice Service, Perth

TAS Staff from left:Taryn Benn, DebbieWardle, Rob Spinks,Toby King, Mia Jeffrey,Rebecca Hall.PHOTO: TAS

to assist with the professional develop-ment of workers throughout the state(e.g. teleconferencing, video conferenc-ing, computer bulletin board systems).

Tenants Advice Service Inc (TAS) isthe oldest specialist community legalcentre in Western Australia. Since itopened in 1979, TAS has grown froma small centre situated in a modifiedsuburban house with one paid staffmember, to a community legal centrein Perth with nine permanent staff andnumerous casual staff and volunteersoperating from offices that are well suit-ed for the purpose.

TAS and fundingTAS carries out education workshopsto tenants and provides legal advice bytelephone and training to communityworkers who may deliver tenancy in-formation as part of their role. TAS alsoprovides legal support by TAS tenantadvocates and/or the TAS solicitor tocommunity workers. Also, TAS offersdirect advocacy and court representa-tion and support 12 specialist tenancyadvocates across the Western Austral-ia.

TAS receives about A$550,000, or335 000 Euro, annually in governmentgrants. The major grant comes throughthe State Department of ConsumerProtection from a trust fund that holdstenants’ bond monies. The interestfrom tenants’ bonds is used to fundservices that benefit tenants – includ-ing TAS. Commonwealth Legal Aidprovides the remainder of the funding.

T H E M E AUSTRALIA

Western Australia, WA, has an area

roughly equivalent to continental

Europe. Although WA covers 1/3 of

the area of Australia it only holds

1/10 of the total population.

11

The Tenants Union of Victoria (TUV) hadit origins in a protracted dispute between the tenants of RoyalCourt, an apartment complex in an inner city Melbournesuburb, and their landlord over increasing rents and the land-lord’s failure to carry out repairs during the 1970s. Thedisgruntled tenants formed a tenants’ association to face theirlandlord with a united collective front, but soon realisedthat the underlying problem was the archaic legislation reg-ulating the landlord-tenant relationship that did not ade-quately address residential tenancy issues in a modern ur-ban context.

Rental seen as a transitional tenureThe Royal Court dispute garnered considerable coverage inthe media, which raised the profile of tenancy as a legiti-mate form of tenure worthy of appropriate protection. Eventhough approximately one-quarter of Victorian householdswere renters, tenancy issues had been substantially ignoredby law and policy makers. It was (mistakenly) believed thatrental in the non-government housing market was a transi-tional tenure, comprised mainly of young households sav-ing to buy their own homes. While most households wouldeventually purchase their own homes, the Victorian privaterental market has always been the source of long-term hous-ing for the majority of low-income families and single peo-ple in Victoria.

Joining forces in the 70´s and 80´sThe TUV in its first incarnation as an informal legal andadvisory service for tenants – was established in 1974. Smallgovernment grants funded a number of smaller branchesacross Victoria. However, once formed, TUV joined forceswith a number of other community organisations to lobbygovernment to establish the Community Committee on Ten-ancy Law Reform, a process that eventually resulted in thefirst piece of legislation specifically dedicated to residentialtenancies in 1980.

The promotion of tenants’ right in Victoria was givenconsiderable impetus by linking it with broader consumerrights movement. By the mid 1970s, consumer rights hadgained acceptance in public policy, and positioning tenantsas consumers made supporting basic protections for themmuch easier.

Secure funding, with the“right” government…From the early 1980’s onwards the TUV had received grantsfor both the State and Federal Government to undertake anumber of its activities. We currently receive funding fromthe State Government departments responsible for consumeraffairs, housing and legal aid. This funding is provided forboth direct assistance to tenants, and for policy and advoca-cy of on behalf of all tenants. By contrast, fees from mem-bers contribute only a small amount. This funding relation-ship has always had its constructive tensions. It has enabledthe organisation to continue to provide a broad based serv-ice but can be difficult when our advocacy is at odds withGovernment policy.

Tenants in a variety of accommodationsSince it’s inception, TUV has grown to provide advice totenants in government housing, the private rental market,caravan parks and rooming houses. We advise approximately19,000 clients across the state each year. TUV also seeks toachieve lasting social change to the benefit of tenants. Ourpolicy, liaison, research, project and publications activitiesall enable us to raise issues with decision makers and thegeneral public. We build on these efforts to effect legisla-tive, policy and procedural change to benefit tenants andresidents.

Mistreatment and injustice isthe origin and fuel of strongtenant organisations!

TUV staff.Sitting are David Imber, Mark O'Brien,

(CEO), Magnus Hammar, IUT andDavid Keaton.

By David Imber, Policy and Liaison Worker.Tenants Union of Victoria

Strong sentiments in the Royal Court dispute, in 1972.

12

20The Tenants’ Union of Queensland isa community based tenant organisationproviding services for and representingthe interests of residential tenants acrossthe state. We work to protect and im-prove the rights of all people who renttheir home, including those living inmarginal tenures which may be exclud-ed from coverage under tenancy law.

Personal approach bytelephone serviceThe Tenants’ Union’s role is two fold,working directly with tenants as well asworking with local or regional tenantadvice services, which aid tenants in adistinct part of the state. Our work withtenants is predominately deliveredthrough our full-time telephone adviceservice. This service aims to inform,advice and empower tenants to dealwith their own tenancy issues. TUQalso run a small legal casework servicewhere we act for tenants with compli-cated tenancy related legal issues.

Continuous trainingOur work with tenancy advice servicesaims to develop their capacity in re-sponding to tenants’ issues. To do this,we provide training and professionaldevelopment on tenancy legislation andclient issues; a regular tenancy law emailpublication to keep services informedof new developments; provide a ‘help-

desk’ to assist workers with tenancy ad-vice issues, and provide support for theiractivities etc. If a tenant calls the Ten-ants’ Union’s phone advice service butthey are unable to self-advocate , for ex-ample, due to literacy issues or if Eng-lish is their second language, we will re-fer the to the local tenant advocate sothey can be assisted face to face.

The Tenants’ Union has a specific In-digenous Tenant Education workerbased in our North Queensland officeand we target other activities to newlyarrived migrant and refugee communi-ties.

Successful lobbyingagainst tenant databasesLaw reform has been a major part ofthe Tenants’ Union of Queensland’swork. We have been key and active play-er in all of the changes and reviews re-garding Queensland tenancy law andrights. After many years of lobbying, wewere recently successful in gaining pro-tections in tenancy law from unfair list-ings on tenant databases. These listingsvirtually exclude a person from the pri-vate rental market.

Funding generatedindirectly from tenantsThe majority of funding for the Ten-ants’ Union Queensland comes fromthe interest generated from tenants’bonds, deposits of one months rent,held in trust by a government authori-ty. Some of these interest funds are pro-vided to a government department todisperse to community organisations,under the Tenant Advice and Advoca-cy Services Program (TAASQ). TheTenants’ Union also receives somemonies through the State and Federaldepartments of Justice, which funds ourlegal casework service.

Bond interest belongsto tenantsThe Tenants’ Union consistently re-minds government that these funds aregenerated from tenants’ bond interest.Individual tenants do not receive anyinterest on their bonds, forfeiting themfor the universal benefit to tenants ofproviding tenancy advice services, butalso to the benefit of lessors and agentswho receive services through the Resi-dential Tenancies Authority. We believeit important that the use of these mon-ies is targeted to the benefit of tenants,rather than be used as consolidated rev-enue.

TUQ has only one line in for ourtelephone advice service, which limitsthe number of calls we can take. Amongthe 6500-7000 advices annually thatTUQ does, almost 20 percent wasabout bond money. Problems oftenoccur when a tenant moves out andclaims the bond back.

Coarse-meshedlegislation for 1/3 of thehouseholdsQueensland is the northern most stateon the Eastern sea board of Australia.According to Census 2001, around32.5% of Queenslanders identify as

by Penny Carr, state wide coordinator of TUQ

The Tenants’ Union of Queensland,

TUQ, was established in 1986 – yes, we

turned 20 this year! – at a time when

there was very limited rights for

tenants. Those rights tenants did have

could only be enforced in a jurisdiction

which was virtually inaccessible, due to

its complexity, costs and the lack of a

timely response.

Tenants in Queensland celebrates 20 years of increased tenant protection

13

Facts: Indigenous peoples in Aus-tralia account for 2-3 percent of theAustralian population, of around 21million. Only 30 percent live in urbancentres, compared to 70 per cent ofall Australians. As a result of severesocial problems and housing need,Aboriginals are over-represented insocial government assisted housing,and accounts for 19 per cent of theAboriginal population, and Aboriginalcommunity managed housing fundedby government accounts for another13 per cent.

Only 28% of Aboriginal familiesown their own home compared to67% of all Australian families.

renters – slightly higher than the na-tional average. Of these renters, about28% are renting from the private rent-al market and just under 4.5% in pub-lic or community housing (most inpublic). The vast majority of the other67.5% of households are homeownersor home purchasers.

2 weeks notice– without grounds!Of particular note in Queensland ten-ancy law, indeed in all or most Austral-ian jurisdictions, is the ability to evicttenants without grounds. Queenslandallows lessors and agents to give ten-ants two weeks notice to end a fixedterm tenancy agreement, withoutgrounds. If a tenant is on a periodic(month to month) agreement, the les-sor can give them a notice to leave,without grounds, with two monthsnotice.

Remove the possibility toevict”without grounds”!Currently, the Queensland ResidentialTenancies Act is under review. We willbe campaigning to remove the availa-bility of eviction ‘without’ grounds’, asthese sorts of terminations, underminetenants’ willingness to enforce otherright such as the premises being keptin good repair. However, we will facestrong criticism and opposition fromthe real estate industry and rental mar-ket investors in this endeavour.

Australia needs to catchup with todays´ realitiesThe need for change in this legislation,reflects the change in the role of therental market in Queensland, indeed,Australia. In the past, the private rent-al market was a tenure of transition, be-tween leaving one’s parental home andmoving into home ownership. Unfor-tunately, with spiraling house prices anda decline in and higher targeting of so-cial housing, the private rental marketis becoming a permanent or long-termtenure for particular pockets of rent-ers. This changing environment re-quires a change of laws to offer furtherprotections for tenants.

The Tenants’ Union of Queensland’website address is www.tuq.org.au

Mavis Metropoulos, left,with her neighbourShirley Davidson.

T H E M E AUSTRALIA

Mrs Metropolous and Mrs Davidson are two of the

approximately 450 000 men and women that represent the abori-

ginal population in Australia. Mavis Metropolous was born in Ma-

rybourgh and now enjoys retirement, living in a government as-

sisted house in Eight Mile Plains, outside Brisbane.

Mrs Metropolous: “I was raised by grandparents in Cherbourg, some 250

kilometres north-west of Brisbane. At the age of nine I came to live in

Brisbane with my mother. I left school at the age of 15 to go to work in

clothing factory. I was the supervisor

of the quality control section. I got

married when I was 21 and raised two

sons.

I also worked for the Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander Commissi-

on, ATSIC. This was the Australian

Government body through which

Aboriginal Australians and Torres

Strait Islanders were formally invol-

ved in the processes of government

affecting their lives. ATSIC closed

down in 2005.

I did have my own home. When I

lost my mother and brother I sold to

live with one of my sons.

I learned to play squash at the age

of 40. I also enjoyed playing 10-pin

bowling. Now I like to relax with

swimming and fishing, and I enjoy

looking after my three grandchild-

ren.”

14

The Special Rapporteur is puzzled that, while the housingproblems that he encountered have been present for dec-ades, no efficient result has been achieved on these issues.He fails to understand why housing is not considered as anational priority.

Mr Kothari would like to once again stress that poorhousing conditions has a direct effect on many aspects ofother rights of those affected including the right to health,to education, to safety, to public participation, to exerciseof civil and political rights, access to justice and the right tobe free from discrimination – all of which Australia has com-mitted itself internationally to protecting and promoting.

Limited access to public housingfor the needyWhilst the demands for public housing and waiting listsare up to ten years in some States, the authorities have notresponded by increasing or adequately maintaining the stockthey possess. To the contrary, some of the stock has beensold to the private market and not replaced1. The responseto the inadequate of demands and lack of public housingstock has been a constant tightening of the eligibility proc-ess to the authorities resulting in significant numbers of

shortcomingsUnited Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housingpoints out severe

in Australian housing conditions

On his mission to Australia, 31 July – 15

August 2006, UN Special Rapporteur Mr

Miloon Kothari has come to believe that

there is a serious hidden national housing

crisis in Australia. This crisis affects many

sections of the population, and though

having a critical and direct impact on the

most vulnerable groups of the population,

its impacts also on other segments of

Australian society especially on the house-

holds with low-income.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack

of reliable disaggregated data on the

number of people affected by these issues.

people unable to access public housing in a timely manner.Legislation gives little regard to the rights of tenants and

legislations. Tenancy laws or the antidiscrimination acts aredifficult to use due to the pressure of the market (fear ofretaliation) and the existence of “black-list” databases. Otherlegislations, such as the anti-social behaviour amendmentsto the Residential Tenancies Act (NT), clearly do not ad-dress the root causes of the problem.

Indigenous communitiesThe Special Rapporteur was particularly disturbed by theadverse housing conditions in the Indigenous communitieshe visited. The Indigenous communities in both urban andrural areas in all States visited, are facing a severe housingcrisis. This is occurring with respect to the unaffordability,the lack of appropriate support services, the significant lev-els of poverty and the underlying discrimination.

The Indigenous Peoples experience substantial discrimi-nation in Australia including in accessing adequate hous-ing and private housing market. The Special Rapporteurnotes that the so-called “shared responsibility agreements”are very likely to be discriminatory and contrary to interna-tional human rights standards.

’I know the word “crisis” is often ill used, but in speakingout today on Indigenous housing in the Northern Territory,I cannot think of a better term.’

Miloon Kothari

Truth of today about the housing crisis in the Northern TerritoryOn 21st February 2006, the Northern Territory Minister for Housing, Mr Elliot McAdam, made a statement to the NorthernTerritory Parliament on Indigenous housing.

Read the full report: www.ohchr.org/english/issues/housing/docs/preliminary_observations_230806.doc

16

Keep yourself up-dated on international housing issues through www.iut.nu

Privatisation and Capitalisation of Rental Housing – Future of Rental housing

BSHF World Habitat Award 2007This Award seeks to identify practicaland innovative solutions to current hou-sing needs and problems. Two awardsare give; one to a housing project fromthe global South, and one from theNorth. An award of £ 10,000 to each ofthe two winners.More information: www.bshf.org

Swedish Public Housing up forsale

In Stockholm only, 100 000 flats are upfor sale. The new government says thatthey want to have a mix of rental andownership flats, particulary in the sub-urbs. Most public flats in the inner cityhave already been sold out, and now itis mainly flats in the large multi familyhouses built in the 1960´s that are outfore sale. The Swedish Union of Tenantswarns tenants to buy, as many of thehouses are in urgent need for repairs.

Queens´ medalsMr Kevin M. Reilly, Co-ordinator of theManawatu Tenants´ Union, New Zea-land, has been rewarded the Queens´Service Medal for voluntary work in hou-

sing, ethnic and social issues. Anothermedallist is Mrs Cora Carter, chair ofKFTRA, and Secretary of Tenants andResidents Organisation of England (TA-ROE), who was rewarded, a few yearsback, the Medal of the British Empire(MBE) for services to housing tenants.See, voluntary work is rewarding!

France endorses housing asa legal rightHaving a decent home should be a le-gal right like healthcare and education,the French government announced onJanuary 3. About 86,500 people arehomeless in France, according to offici-al figures from 2001.Aid groups saymore than 3 million people have seri-ous housing problems“It will be possible to implement the le-gal right to housing from the end of2008 for people in the most difficult si-tuations, notably the homeless but alsopoor workers and isolated women withchildren,” Prime Minister Dominique deVillepin told a news conference. Villepinalso said that the right would be exten-ded to other people, such as those ininadequate public housing, in 2012.Source: www.liberation.fr

Brick Out!Time for a break? Why not try out thecomputer game Brick Out, from the So-cial Housing Foundation, South Africa.Check out www.shf.org.za/brickout

EU Housing Charter, and aheadIn April 2006 the EU Urban and Hous-ing Intergroup approved of the Europe-an Housing Charter, as drafted by MEPAlain Hutchinson. The task of the Hous-ing Charter has now been left to ItalianMEP Mr Alfonso Andria, who is to pre-pare the road for a possible approval ofthe Charter by the Parliament. Before apossible approval, Mr Andria prepared an“own-initiative report” titled “Housing andRegional Policy” for the Parliaments´Committee on Regional Development(REGI). This working document, or “own-initiative report”, became a “draft report”on January 9; PE 382.449v01-00. TheREGI Committee will vote on the draftreport on February 27. Any finished rep-ort would be approved by the Parlia-ments´ Plenary in April 2007.Andria´s report of January 9 is availablein all EU-languages: www.iut.nu

N O T I C E S

IUT XVII Congress, Berlin September 21-23, 2007We invite IUT Members to come to Berlin and meet with colleagues and friends!

This 17th congress is a joint event between the IUT and German Tenants´ Union, Deutscher Mieterbund, DMB.

ON THE PROGRAM:• presentations of the housing situation in different countries

• work shops on different housing related issues

• study visits

• social activities

• a panel debate, on– Privatisation and Capitalisation of Public Housing,

– Is there is European Housing Policywith

MEP Alain Hutchinson, vice chair of the EU Urban and Housing IntergroupMEP Göran Färm

Wolfgang Förster, City of ViennaDaniela Grabmüllerova, Ministry of Regional Dev., Czech Republic

and from CECODHAS, England and Poland

For more information: www.iut.nu/conferences.htm