Renters in Victoria want to be able to keep pets in their home without permission from landlords.
The State’s tenants union has called for changes to Victoria’s tenancy laws in a submission to the Residential Tenancies Act Review.
The union argues that tenants should only have to inform landlords that they have a pet or intend to get one, rather than having to ask for permission to have one.
Yaelle Caspi from the Tenants Union of Victoria said they want a clause added to the Act that would allow tenants to keep pets without approval because in most cases the tenant’s bond payment is more than enough to cover any potential damage to the property caused by animals.
“The tenant‘s bond is kept as a safeguard to cover any potential damage to the property,” the submission says.
“Tenants with pets have considerable difficulty accessing rental properties due to the large number of landlords who do not permit pets.”
“This issue also constrains tenants who are in existing properties from getting a pet.”
The tenants union submission also pushed for the scrapping of ‘no reason’ evictions, for rental increases to be capped at the consumer price index and for rental increases to be banned outright on properties with outstanding repair orders.
Ms Caspi said on News.com the union was particularly concerned about ‘no reason’ evictions in case tenants were unfairly evicted as acts of revenge of acts of discrimination.
The Residential Tenancies Act lays out over 20 reasons landlords can evict tenants, but Ms Caspi said tenants were often just evicted without a reason because they were allowed to by law.
Furthermore, the union wants to see landlords in Victoria having to get written permission from tenants to hold open for inspections, and their submission argued that auctions are an unnecessary disturbance to tenants and should be held off-site.
