 Hello and welcome and thanks for joining us for today's webinar on tenancy databases. My name is Mark Fiddler and I'm a senior community education officer with the RTA. Before we get started, I'd like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this event is taking place and elders past, present and emerging. I also recognise those whose ongoing effort to protect and promote Aboriginal and Torres State Islander cultures will leave a lasting legacy for future elders and leaders. In today's session, we will look to cover the topics as listed on the slide and will answer any questions you may have as we go along. When we send out the details for today's webinar, we ask you to provide us with any questions or topics you would like us to cover. We received a number of suggestions and we will provide a response to those as we go through today's webinar. We really appreciate the time you took to provide those questions and answers and suggestions when you registered as it has helped us tailor today's presentation to ensure that you get the most out of it. We encourage you to engage with us today and encourage you to drop questions into the chat function within Zoom as we go along. We will address as many questions as we can, but as our focus is on tenancy databases, we would ask the questions are in relation to the information we are discussing today. At the end of the session, you will be asked to complete a short survey, so we do encourage you to provide topics that you would like us to cover in future webinars or education sessions. So tenancy databases have been around for a number of years, but Queensland was the first state to introduce laws regarding the use of databases into its tenancy legislation. This was first done in the early to mid-2000s and these laws were reviewed and updated in 2016. The Residential Tendencies and Rooming Accommodation Act of 2008, along with the Residential Tendencies and Rooming Accommodation Regulation of 2009, is the legislation that governs the use of tenancy databases in Queensland. And we will have a look at what the Act says in more detail shortly. The definition of a database according to the Act is a database containing information that is personal information relating to or arising from the occupation of a residential premises under a Residential Tendency Agreement. Generally, tenancy databases are registers run by privately owned companies, record information about tenants who have had their tenancies extended for specific reasons. They can be used by property managers or owners during the application process to check a prospective tenant's rental history and they're not operated or maintained by the RTA. There are a number of different databases available for use or being used in Australia and you may have heard databases referred to as blacklists or people that have been listed on a database as having been blacklisted. These are not official terms and phrases. Instead, you will hear me talking about a database being listed or the listed party. In effect, they are the same thing, but we will stick to the legislative references today to help with consistency and understanding. It is important to note here that the Act does not cover a tenancy database kept by an entity for use only by that entity or its employees or agents or a social housing database. So we have received a number of questions from you through the registration process around how do you list someone or what do you need to consider before listing someone on a database. These next few slides will cover the requirements for listing someone's personal information on a database. According to the Act, the definition of list in relation to personal information means entering the personal information into a database or giving the personal information to a database operator for entry into that database. There are a few things that must have occurred before someone's personal information can be listed. Firstly, the person whose information you are considering listing must have been named as a tenant in a residential tenancy agreement. Approved or unapproved occupants, visitors or children of tenants in an agreement cannot be listed as they would not have been named on an agreement. And secondly, the agreement must have ended. Now, there are prescribed reasons or there must be a prescribed reason for listing and we'll look at what these are on the next slide and a tribunal must not have made an order prohibiting the listing of information. Now, all of these details are set out in section 459 of the Residential Tenancies and Rumi Accommodation Act and this information is available on our tenancy database fact sheet and I'd encourage you to access our website to get hold of that fact sheet. So, as I mentioned a moment ago, there are prescribed reasons for listing someone on a database. So, one of the following reasons must have occurred for you to be able to list someone. So, in relation to unpaid rent, if a tenant receives a formal event for rent arrears and fails to remedy the breach within a loud remedy period and the tenancy has ended, then the tenant may be listed on a database. The amount owing in the situation of rent must be more than the amount of bonds being held. In regards to conciliation agreements or tribunal orders, if the tenancy has ended and through a conciliation agreement, money above the amount of bond being held is agreed to be paid by the tenant by a certain date or the tribunal has made an order that the tenant owes an amount above the bond and it must be paid by a certain date. If those dates pass and the amount has not been paid or the amounts have not been paid, then the tenant can be listed. So, amounts owing after an abandonment. So, if the tenant abandons a property and owes more than the amount of bond being held, they can be listed on a database. One thing to be conscious of here is if the tenant did dispute or has disputed the abandonment notice and the matter is still to be heard by QCAT, then you will need to hold off on that listing. Now, in regards to objectionable behaviour and repeated breaches, these are both things that the tribunal or reasons that the tribunal must have ended a tenancy before someone can be listed. So, in regards to objectionable behaviour, the tribunal must have ended the tenancy under section 297 which makes reference to objectionable behaviour and there's more money outstanding than the bond being held. And similarly with repeated breaches, the tribunal must end the agreement for repeated breaches and that's covered by section 299 of our Act. And again, more money than the bond must be owed in regards to the tenancy. In both those instances, the tenant can be listed if those things occur. Now, these requirements here are quite specific and also particular to the amount of bond being held under the agreement. Now, it is important for me to mention here that if a bond has been taken, it must be lodged with the RTA. Now, if no bond has been taken for the agreement, then the amounts that I referred to regarding the requirements I just mentioned must be more than one week's rent under the agreement. Something else to note here too is that appearance, a person rather that has experienced domestic and family violence, can apply to a tribunal for an order to prevent their personal information being listed in tenancy database where a breach of the agreement is a result of the actions of another person who has committed an act of domestic or family violence. Now, there is a lot of information regarding this particular point in our domestic and family violence fact sheets. And again, we would encourage you to jump onto our website and access those for more information around that matter. So, now that we're clear on what must have occurred and what reasons a person can be listed, let's have a look at what a listing party must do. It is important to note here and we have received some questions about accessing databases. The RTA cannot assist you with finding a database to use, can't assist with how to obtain information from databases, or even answer specific questions about how companies run their databases. We would encourage property owners or managers to contact their peak bodies for information or assistance with those things. We can advise though that before listing a person on a database, the listing party must give a copy or take reasonable steps to disclose the personal information they are looking to list for the person. They must give the person 14 days to review the information and make submissions to them that either object the entry into the database or submissions about the accuracy, completeness or clarity of the information they're proposing to list. And the agent or the person listing must consider any submission made. Now a submission in this context would be the tenant either emailing or speaking to the listing party as to why the listing should not be made and trying to resolve the situation with them. We will look at what options the tenant has if they're unable to resolve things with the listing party on the next slide. There are penalty provisions that apply if a listing party does not take these steps and the listing party is expected to make reasonable inquiries as to the location of the person so they can disclose the information to them. So if a tenant is aware of a proposed or an existing listing and they don't agree, they can talk to the listing person and try and reach an agreement. The RTA encourages self-resolution between the parties but if that does fail, the tenant can lodge a dispute resolution request using either the RTA's web services or complete a dispute resolution form 16. Our dispute resolution service can assist in attempting to negotiate an agreement about a listing, particularly about a proposed listing. They can also apply directly to QCAT to order that the person, an agency or tenancy database database operator is not to list or to vary the listing with certain changes and or conditions as appropriate. A dispute about a listing on the grounds that it does not meet the approved criteria must be initiated within six months of the tenant becoming aware of the listing. And again we have plenty of information on our website about our dispute resolution process and how that can assist you through this process so we'd encourage you to have a look for that information. Now disputes will be lodged because a tenant disagrees with the listing or circumstances since their information was listed has changed. Property owners and managers do have continuing responsibility after information has been listed. So if a property owner or a manager lists a tenant on a database and becomes aware that the information is either inaccurate, incomplete, ambiguous or out of date they must within seven days advise the database operator in writing that the information is inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous and how it must be amended so it is no longer so. And for information that is out of date that it must be removed. Now just for your awareness there are obligations on the database operators to act on this information and amend the information with 14 days of you providing it to them. And I would encourage you to keep good records of what you're providing to the database operator in these instances. It's also important to note that a database operator must not keep a listing for more than three years. A lot of what we've discussed so far has been around listings and the requirements that must be met if you are looking to list someone on a database. The last thing that we will look at is what are your responsibilities when you want to access databases as a part of the application process? If a property owner or manager uses a tenancy database check as a part of their application process they must advise the prospective tenant the name of all the databases they use the reason they use the relevant databases is for checking a person's tenancy history and how the person may contact the database operator and obtain information from them. Now this information can be included in the application form so tenants know upfront that this is a part of your standard process. If a database search does find personal information about the applicant you must give written notice to the applicant of the following. The name of the database and that personal information is listed within it. Details of the listing entity if available and how and in what circumstances the applicant can have the information removed or amended and how they can obtain a copy of the person's information. Now these requirements must be met regardless of whether or not the property owner or manager intends to use the database for deciding whether a residential tenancy agreement should be entered into with the applicant. And again there are penalty provisions for not complying with these requirements. Breaching laws regarding a tenancy database carries a penalty of up to 50 units per offense for individuals. The current penalty value for an individual is $154.80 noting that that penalty unit is greater for corporations. As Queensland's rental regulator the RTA is committed to upholding and enforcing compliance with the law so it's important you understand your rights and responsibilities in this space. So that's it for the tenancy database part of our webinar today. We do encourage you to ensure that you've signed up for our monthly RTA news email so we can keep you informed of any key topics or changes. We do produce a range of educational resources including recorded webinars on tenancy legislation and key topics as well as our Talking Tenancies podcast series. These include a lot of detailed information regarding the recent tenancy changes and you can access both through the RTA's website and you can see the links to these on the screen. Your feedback on today's session does help us to improve our communication so do please fill out the short survey that will come up on the screen at the end and you can also follow us on LinkedIn. So just before we finish I will remind you of our contact details. So our call centre is available on 1-300-300-63001. They're open from 830 to 5 o'clock Monday to Friday and interpreters are available when you contact us free of charge and obviously our website www.rta.qld sorry rta.qld.gov.au and there's a lot of information on there and that is available to you at all times. I do a thank you for your attendance today and for listening along with us and I will now end the webinar.