The national cabinet to consider commercial and residential tenancies on April 3

The national cabinet to consider commercial and residential tenancies on April 3
Staff reporterDecember 8, 2020

The national cabinet has agreed to consider advice from Treasurers on commercial and residential tenancies at their next meeting on Friday April 3.

Tenants and landlords are left in limbo as to how they will be affected.

six month ban on evictions has been announced, although the plan is yet to be fully outlined.

It was nearly a week ago that Scott Morrison said there will "soon be an announcement" for the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs and small business operators who can't pay rent.

He described the issue as complex. 

"A lot of progress has been made over the course of today and over the course of this week, we'll be looking to hopefully finalise some measures", Morrison said when responding when the government will announce how they will help to ease people's rent bill.

"This is obviously a complicated issue because you've got a tenant, you've got a landlord, you've got creditors and all of those issues and you need to solve for the entire chain that's there", Morrison said.

It was to be considered at the National Cabinet that evening, however there is still no formal decision made.

The president of the REIA, Adrian Kelly said while he is very supportive of the Government's efforts, the REIA was disappointed with the simplistic approach of the Prime Minister’s message.

He suggested the PM's message "ignores the tenancy arrangement and thus raises more questions than it answers."

“Real estate agents are the middle persons who facilitate the agreement between landlords and tenants and manage it as well as the property."

Adrian Kelly said the government's moratorium on evictions overlooks the fact that real estate agents and agencies are also going to be affected by the ongoing crisis.

"We need to address the support of agents so that what the prime minister wants, in terms of landlords and tenants — finding a solution to get through the crisis, can be achieved," Kelly said.

"Estate agents will work very hard to facilitate the role between landlord and tenant, and to do this they need income."

The parliaments of two states, NSW and Tasmania have passed legislation on evictions although they are unlikely to become law since they did not emerge from the government benches.

 

 

 

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