The New South Wales government has been accused of failing renters by delaying legislation to end no-grounds evictions as demand for legal aid spikes across Sydney.
Despite both major parties pledging to abolish no-grounds evictions in the 2023 election, the government is yet to introduce legislation to implement the much-anticipated reforms.
The premier, Chris Minns, said on Tuesday that the government was still “grappling” with the “tricky” issue and looking at the experience of other states, almost all of which have already outlawed the practice.
“This policy isn’t straightforward,” Minns told radio station 2GB.
“We have to do something … because it’s an election commitment and secondly because from 2016 to 2021 we lost twice as many young people in NSW as we gained, and that’s including all the inbound migration NSW takes from the rest of the world.”
No-grounds evictions allow landlords to evict a tenant without giving any reason, even when the tenant has paid their rent on time, looked after the home and the landlord intends to keep renting out the property.
Inner West mayor, Darcy Byrne, urged Minns not to let “perfect be the enemy of the good” and to enact reforms that could be reviewed and tweaked within a chosen timeframe.
“The sheer number of people being evicted should have meant it happened already,” he said.
He approved the cash injection for Marrickville Legal Centre so it could hire or retain staff amid an uptick in need.
The centre’s chief executive, Vasili Maroulis, said the sector’s challenges had only worsened since Covid and his small team could not meet increased demand, with about 750 tenants turned away over the past six months.
He hoped the government would enact major reforms to help “correct that imbalance” between landlords and tenants.
“I would hope that would alleviate pressure on our services,” he said.
Maroulis was grateful to the council for the funds that would help residents fight excessive rent increases, escape domestic violence and oppose unfair evictions.
Julie, who did not want her surname used, and her daughter have been renting in Dulwich Hill for more than a year and recently called the centre for help after being issued with a $100-a-week increase, despite rising damp and leaking pipes at their property.
The duo asked for the issues to be fixed before agreeing to the increase, which was when they were told they would have to move out, which would be their third no-grounds eviction in five years.
“We either want them to work something out with us, fix it around us or give us a rent reduction,” Julie said.
“We’ve been putting up with it because we just hate moving so much.”
They are some of the thousands of renters who have been issued with no-grounds evictions over the past year, according to the Tenants’ Union of NSW.
The union’s chief executive, Leo Patterson Ross, said rushing no-grounds legislation would be wrong but “it needs to be resolved so that we can get on with other improvements to the rental sector”.
“Reform must be comprehensive,” he said.
NSW Greens housing spokesperson and Newtown MP Jenny Leong, said the situation for renters in NSW was “getting worse by the day”.
“The perfect storm of low vacancy rates, sky-rocketing rents and sparse legal protections for renters is pushing people towards homelessness,” she said.
“This government isn’t asleep at the wheel – they know what they can do to provide relief for renters but they won’t make changes because they are so tangled up trying to protect the profits of property investors.”
The MP introduced her own bill to deal with the issue which was then referred to a parliamentary inquiry due to report back in September.
Opposition spokesperson Tim James said the premier had “failed to deliver any of his election promises” to reform the sector other than the appointment of a rental commissioner, Trina Jones, last year.
