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AAP
AAP
Politics
Michael Ramsey

WA rejects calls for end to no-grounds rental evictions

Sue Ellery said it was not the right time to make owning a rental property more complex. (Richard Wainwright/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Western Australia will remain one of the only states where all renters can be evicted without a reason as the government looks to avoid spooking investors.

But laws will be amended to give greater freedoms to tenants, including the right to keep pets and make minor home modifications.

Rent increases will be limited to once every 12 months, while landlords and property managers will be banned from encouraging bidding wars by pressuring tenants to offer more than the advertised rent.

They will also be required to advertise rent prices at a fixed amount rather than a range.

In WA, landlords can evict tenants at the end of a fixed-term lease without a reason if they provide 30 days' notice.

For ongoing periodic leases, the notice period is 60 days.

That will remain the case under the proposed amendments to WA's residential tenancy laws, with Commerce Minister Sue Ellery citing the need to preserve housing supply within an already tight rental market.

"Adding further regulatory burden, by restricting property owners' ability to make decisions about their own asset, will add to uncertainty," she told reporters on Friday.

"That's at a time when we need more investment in the supply of long-term rental properties.

"It's not the right time to make it more complex to own and manage a long-term private rental property."

South Australia and the Northern Territory are the only other jurisdictions that have not moved to ban no-grounds evictions in some form.

Queensland and Tasmania have outlawed them for periodic tenancies and the newly elected NSW Labor government has indicated it will follow suit.

But Ms Ellery noted only Victoria and the ACT had banned without-grounds evictions for both fixed and periodic tenancies.

Most Australian renters were on fixed-term leases, she added.

"It's important to understand who is it that owns the private rental properties," she said.

"It's the small investors, it's the mum-and-dad investors with perhaps one or two properties.

"In the current market, we can't afford to add uncertainty to the decision-making of those small investors."

Painting walls and installing hooks are examples of the designated minor modifications that tenants will be allowed to undertake without permission.

They may be required to reverse the changes at the end of the tenancy.

Landlords will only be able to deny tenants from having a pet if it is deemed reasonable by government officials.

The Commissioner for Consumer Protection will be responsible for handling all rental disputes, meaning parties will no longer have to go before the Magistrates Court.

"Secret shoppers" will be deployed at open properties to ensure real estate agents are complying with the crackdown on rental bidding.

Perth's rental vacancy rate was just 0.7 per cent in April, according to the Real Estate Institute of WA, with the median rent up 17 per cent from a year earlier.

Ms Ellery acknowledged limiting rental increases from twice-yearly to annual could result in bigger price hikes but said it would give tenants greater certainty.

She hoped the legislative amendments, which also include a streamlining of the security bond release process, would be introduced to parliament this year and come into operation in the second half of 2024.

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