On 8 October 2017, Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the State Government would legislate a series of reforms to the Residential Tenancies Act in 2018 that ‘gives tenants more rights, helps them stay on longer leases, makes bonds smaller and fairer, and cracks down on dodgy landlords’. Exactly eight months on, no further details have been provided and nothing has changed. You promised to make renting fair.  Now it’s time to get it done. Tenants are

The year is almost halfway over, and we have come to a critical juncture in the fight for renters’ rights in Victoria. A recent article in The Australian referred to renters as a ‘new political force’ in Australia. I couldn’t agree more. Over the years, renters have watched ‘mum and dad’ investors making hundreds of thousands of dollars by simply having purchased property at the right time.  Inflated prices have burst the ‘great Australian dream’

We understand that to provide information and advice directly to the residential tenants who contact our service isn’t enough – that working in conjunction with community sector advocates helps provide tangible benefits to the maximum number of tenants possible. The Tenants Victoria Training Service provides this vital link. This service aims to ensure that accurate information about residential tenancy laws is accessible to the greatest number of staff and volunteers working in Victoria’s community sector

Tenants Victoria first began translating tenancy information in 1985, when Consumer Affairs Victoria provided us with a grant to develop short pamphlets about renters’ rights in a handful of foreign languages.  At this time, the majority of new migrants went straight into public housing and then often onto home ownership.  A brief pamphlet of information was suitable to meet the general demand. Over the past decade, the demographic of private renters has changed dramatically.  Now,

Our client was a woman who lived with some disabilities who had her home at the same address for nearly twenty years.  She approached the Tenants Victoria Legal Service via our tenancy help line when she experienced trouble with having her landlord tend to repairs at the property. The list of repairs was extensive as a result of ongoing neglect by the landlord.  Furthermore, these issues posed a significant concern to the tenant’s health and