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About the Bill 

On 21 March 2024, the Hon Meaghan Scanlon, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Planning and Minister for Public Works introduced the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the Housing, Big Build and Manufacturing Committee for detailed consideration.   

View: Explanatory speech 
View: Bill 
View: Explanatory Notes 
View: Statement of compatibility 

The Bill amends the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 (RTRA Act) to strengthen renters’ rights, support private investment, provide better pathways to resolve issues in tenancies and stabilise rents in the private rental market.

The objectives of the Bill are to:

• improve the rental bond process by ensuring bond refunds are fair and transparent and claims against the rental bond are genuine and substantiated
• balance renters’ right to privacy with property owners’ right to information by extending entry notice periods and appropriate handling and disposal of renters’ information
• make the rental application process fairer and easier by giving renters a choice about how to submit their rental application and prescribing a rental application form that limits the information that can be collected from a prospective renter
• ease cost of living pressures for renters by protecting renters from unreasonable fees and charges, including reletting costs and rent payment methods that attract costs other than bank and other account fees usually payable for transactions
• support renters and property owners to agree to changes that can be made to the rental property to meet occupants changing needs
• help to stabilise the private rental market by applying the annual limit for rent increases to the rental property not the tenancy, and banning all forms of rent bidding
• progress reforms under National Cabinet’s A Better Deal for Renters (ABDR)
• appropriately balance the rights of parties in the rental relationship to improve the rental experience for Queensland renters and property owners and clarify the expectations of all parties in the rental sector
• support enhanced compliance and enforcement functions
• establish a legislative scheme for mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) for property agents.
• address technical and procedural issues associated with the ending of a residential tenancy agreement or rooming accommodation agreement as part of an economic reasons termination process which is to be introduced into the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (BCCM Act) by the Body Corporate and Community Management and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023
• amend the local government superannuation scheme to remove the requirement for mandatory employee contributions, other than for defined benefit members, and to change the name of the trustee and the scheme to reflect a change in the business name of the default fund.

Further information

Further information including written briefings, correspondence, response to submissions, transcripts and answers to questions taken on notice will be published under the Related Publications tab.

Committee’s report

The committee is due to table its report on 10 May 2024.

Once the committee’s report has been tabled, the Government has three months to respond to the report’s recommendations (if any). At that time, the Government Response will be published here.

Timeline