 Well, good morning everybody and welcome to the RTA's webinar on Starting Attendancy. My name is Mark Fiddler and I'm from the Communication and Education team here at the RTA. With me today is Deb Bond also from the C&E team. Morning Deb. Morning Mark. Thanks very much for joining us. Deb will be helping me do some polls and answer some questions throughout today's webinar. Before we get started, I'd like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of this country and their continuing connection with the land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to all traditional owners and to elders past, present and emerging. So today's session will be focused on the scenario topics listed on the slide. We will record the webinar today and it will be made available on the RTA's website within the next week. The information today does include the changes made to the legislation on 1 October 2022. We will have a look at your questions as they come through and have a final question and answer session at the end of today. Note and please note that the RTA cannot provide legal advice and you are encouraged to seek your own independent advice and to make informed decisions. So to make this an interactive session today, we encourage you to ask questions or make comments throughout. To do so, please use the chat function in the toolbar. At the end of the session, as I mentioned, there will be a question and answer survey session. There will also be a quick survey that comes up and we'd appreciate you filling that out as your feedback allows us to identify how we can improve our communication and education activities. We'll also be doing some polls during today's session and we'll start the first one now. I'll hand over to Deb to run a poll. So the first poll is about who's with us today. So we want to know which group in the rental sector you identify with. So take a moment to let us know whether you're a property manager or agent, an owner or landlord, tenant or resident, rooming provider or owner, caravan park manager. We might have some people in community housing and support. And if you don't fit into any of those categories, just let us know you're something else by using other. And also we're curious to know whereabouts in Queensland you're from. So just having a look at the results that have come through so far. So it looks like most of the people today are property owners and landlords followed by property managers and agents. And most people are from Southeast Queensland, but we have a couple of people from Central and North Queensland as well. So thank you everyone for joining us on the line. And I'll hand back over to Matt to keep talking us through. Thanks Deb. All right. So what we want to look at today is starting a tenancy and getting off on the right foot. So the first thing that we need to look at is what our legislation does cover. So most of you will be familiar and obviously with the people that have joined us today, property agents and landlords, you'll be aware that general tenancies, your houses, flats, units, townhouses, most types of agreements. Moveable dwellings and the legislation does cover those are for tenancies in caravan parks and that's whether you rent a van or a site or both in the park. These do not include manufactured home tenancies. Moveable dwelling agreements are mainly covered by the same legislation as general tenancies. There's a few differences though around park rules and other matters specific to fan parks. Today we also look at rooming accommodation. So where the resident is renting a room only and has shared facilities such as in a boarding house or purpose built student accommodation. It's important to acknowledge terminology is a bit different between general tenancies and rooming accommodation and the time frames are a little bit different and some of the requirements for the tenancy are different as well. Now the other thing to note with this is that the act doesn't cover borders and lodges. It doesn't cover education institutions where the accommodation is on campus. We don't cover commercial leases. The first 13 weeks of this approved supported accommodation or temporary refuge accommodation. So before the tenancy commences, it's important to note that the residential tenancies and rooming accommodation act doesn't cover the tenancy selection or application process. So we're aware agents and landlords will have different and various methods within their application processes and it will usually include an identification check, which may include 100 point ID process. It may also ask the references or information to support the tenancy application. The agent or landlord really should be looking for the tenant's ability to care for and maintain the rental property and also their ability to pay or to afford to pay the rent. Through this process, landlords and managers should also be aware of privacy laws and anti-discrimination laws. Now our act does include section 58, which states that a prospective tenant must be given a copy of the proposed tenancy agreement before the tenant commits to the tenancy. Now this is for general tenancies only. Before the tenant commits, means that before they pay any money or sign the agreement, a proposed agreement should be completed and given to the prospective tenant. In most instances this will include all of the terms and conditions and be fully completed probably except for the name and the start date. Now by giving the tenant a prospective agreement, it'll give them an opportunity to read and understand any of the terms, how rent will be paid for example in any special terms. It's also an opportunity for them to clarify any questions that they have prior to the tenancy starting. So in relation to special terms, and I mentioned that the proposed agreement must include your special terms, these are negotiable and should be discussed prior to the tenant signing the agreement. They can include details about keeping a pet to be water charging or even garden requirements. Now the special terms, the manager or property owner can't allow or can't require the tenant to leave the property in a better condition than it was at the start of the tenancy. Therefore you can't require carpets to be steam cleaned as an example if that wasn't done before they moved in. You can't require the tenant to purchase goods or services. Now unless these terms are in relation to your agreeing for pets to be kept at the premises as a part of the application process. Now we'll talk a little bit more about pets and that process because they have been some changes in the legislation recently. Also you can't request or state a specific bond cleaning or carpet cleaning service and you can't ask a tenant to pay a set fee for bond cleaning or carpet cleaning. You'll also see a note on the screen regarding contracting outside of the act. Now this means that you cannot change the intent of the act or a standard term of the act with a special term. For example, you can't change a time frame. So if the act says that you must provide two months notice, you can't change that to be one month notice for example. A couple of other things to be aware of before starting the tenancy and especially with our current challenges in the market and low vacancy rates. Now please be aware that rent must be advertised at a fixed rate. It's okay for a tenant to offer more than the advertised amount and you can accept that but you can't then tell other tenants they need to match or offer more again. This might be considered to be rent bidding and is an offence under our legislation. There are also minimum rent in advance amounts that can be requested. Four weeks for fixed tenancies and two weeks rent for periodic tenancies. The tenants may offer more, for example they may offer the total rent upfront. Now this can be accepted but you can't ask for it. You also should consider if it's the best option for both yourselves and the tenant. Now in relation to rent payments, if you are offering rent card or another third party arrangement you must also offer two approved ways to pay rent. Now approved ways under our legislation include cash check or deposit to a financial institution. You cannot specify bank check and money order is not an approved way. And the other thing with these third party arrangements is that you must ensure that the tenant is aware of any associated costs. Now if this is either a dollar amount or even a percentage amount it's best to set that out in the agreement or at least have a conversation with the tenant. For example some some rent card payments require a percentage amount if the tenant is using credit card. Now it's all good and well might look a small amount but two and a half percent credit card surcharge on $500 a week rent adds up to nearly $650 across the year. Now that's more than another week's rent and there could be some concerns from the tenant in that aspect. That's best practice to ensure that your tenant is well aware of the costs. Now that we've got all of that sorted we've advertised the property. We've found our tenant and they're happy with the agreement and everyone's looking to get the thing started. There's four basic forms required at the start of your tenancy. I'll provide specific details on each of these forms in the upcoming slides but the four forms that you're looking at are your general tenancy agreement. We've talked about that being needed to be filled out before the tenant commits. So this will include your standard terms. These cannot be changed and they're outlined under the regulations of the act. And also we've spoken about the special terms and they should be included in this. The entry condition report which is your form 1A and I'll speak about the importance of that in a moment. The information statement or pocket guide for tenants. Now this can be downloaded from our website and a copy provided to the tenant or it can be provided to them as a link from our website. And the other form is the bond lodgement form and I'll touch on lodgement options in a moment. So in relation to all of our forms it is important that you are using our website to ensure that you've got the most current form or check that the system that you're using has the most current and correct form information. So we do update our forms so it is important to ensure that you've always got the most current copy. Now as I mentioned a moment ago, once the tenants agree to take the property the 18A must be signed. So there shouldn't be any surprises at this point because the tenant should have been provided a copy of that before committing to the tenancy and all the standard and special terms should be in there. Copy of the signed agreement must be provided to both parties. Now there have been some changes to the forms from the 1st of October, the legislative changes and we'll have a look at those over the next couple of slides. So the changes made on October 1st of 2022 provide for the tenant to be able to seek a repair order if repairs have not been made to the property. Now information regarding repair orders can be found on our website including a webinar titled Repair Orders and Other Amendments. Now there will drop the link into the chat now for that information. If there are outstanding repair orders on the property they must now be stated at item 5.3. So if a tenancy ends and there's an outstanding repair order on the property the details must be included in this section. Now repair orders it's important to note are specific to the property not a tenancy. So that's why this important information needs to be provided. And can I also note while we're looking at item 5, 5.2 refers to inclusions provided of property. Now you need to be thorough and descriptive in this section. For example if you've got expensive rubber backed block out curtains on a window please ensure that you describe them as such. If you just put curtains you might come back at the end of the tenancy to find cheap Calico curtains from Kmart on the windows. If 5.2 just says curtains then you may have some issues in regards to how the tenancy finishes up. Another change made on the 1st of October was in regards to contacts for repairs. Before the 1st of October the Act says you may list someone in those spots. The Act now says that you must list contact details of who the tenant should contact in an emergency repair situation. If your organisation is at first point of contact that's okay as long as the tenant can get hold of someone in an emergency situation. Now the entry condition report I mentioned that before it is important to fill this out clearly and correctly at the start. So the process is as stated on the slide. The agent must fill out and sign the agreement before giving it to the tenant for them to complete. There's also been a change here in that the tenant now has seven days to get that back to you and that's increased from three as it was before the 1st of October. So it's important to be thorough, attach any documentation or evidence that may be required to support the condition of the property and we also recommend photos. Now remember that this report is compared to the execution report at the end of the tenancy. There's a couple of things to note now. The tenant now has seven days from the start of a tenancy to end their tenancy if the premises are not fit to live in not in good repair or do not meet laws regarding the health and safety of the property. And from September 1 2023 if the property doesn't meet minimum housing standards they will have an option to end the tenancy within seven days. So a properly filled out and accurate entry condition report is important as proof of how the property was given to the tenant. The other thing to note here is our dispute resolution service received just under 20,000 disputes last year and nearly 53% of those were in relation to the bond. So good documentation, respectful and regular communication between agents and landlords and the tenants and clear evidence of how the property was at the start of the tenancy can avoid matters escalating to disputes. The information statement form 17A, this form's been around, there's been no changes to the legislation in regards to this but it is a less or responsibility to provide a copy of this to the tenant at the start of the tenancy. As I mentioned earlier it can be downloaded from our website or it can be emailed to the tenant as a PDF. Also to note that we's POC guides are available in a range of other languages. At the moment we are working on updating them in relation to the legislation changes so keep an eye out on our website for when those are actually updated and available again. Now in relation to the bond launch process if you are taking money from a tenant and sending that to us with a form and a check you must ensure that that is lodged with us within 10 days. If agents are using BOG process in this situation if you're sending in checks mid and end of month be aware that that may not meet the 10-day requirement. Otherwise our web services is a quicker option for either party to lodge the bond. A tenant or agent can use a single bond lodgment and agents can also now lodge BOG bonds with one payment. Now again for the agents out there that may be looking to use web services Deb's going to drop a link into the chat and there's plenty of information to get you started if you're not familiar with that process. And for us to get a bit of an idea on who is using web services I'll get you to run that poll for me Deb just on the use of web services. Yep so I'm just opening up a poll now so we're curious to know if you've used any of our web services and which they are. You can tick as many options as you've used so maybe you've used both our bond refunds and our bond lodgements whether that's the single or the BOG lodgements. There's also the dispute resolution requests the change of bond contributor the option to update your details and we do have an option to say that you haven't used our web services yet there's always time to use them in future. So I'll just give another moment to answer. Okay I think most people have answered so yeah probably the most popular ones that people have used and a few people are ticking multiple options as well are the single bond lodgements and the bond refunds and quite a few on the change of bond contributor and a few people who haven't used our web services yet so that's something you can discover. So I'll just end that. Excellent thanks for that Deb and thanks for that feedback. All right so moving forward in relation to the key processes so just to recap here it's important to get everything right at the start. Please double check your dates amounts and contact details on all of your forms. We do see a lot of disputes about incorrectly stated rent amounts or incorrect dates for starts and finishes of tenancies so ensuring that you're checking and double checking those things at the start can avoid a lot of issues and also if you're agreeing to receive notices by email please ensure that any email addresses are correct. Keep a copy of your paperwork and any notices that are issued and ensure that you do comply with the act throughout the tenancy. As I mentioned before communication is key to resolving a lot of disputes and clarifying any issues and if you're not sure of any legislative requirements please reach out to the RTA for assistance and I'll provide some contact details for us shortly. So once the tenancy started both parties have legislative rights and responsibilities throughout so I know I've focused today on getting things right at the start but it is important to be aware of your continuing obligations. Health and safety laws cover things such as smoke alarm, safety switches and pool safety certificates if there is one at the property and dealing with maintenance request is also important. Tenants must notify you repairs that need to be done and they should be done within a reasonable timeframe. As I mentioned earlier if things aren't dealt with tenants can now seek a repair order. Now the change to note with repairs is that the emergency repair if emergency repairs are required and not responded to the tenant now can spend up to four weeks rent and to have the matter rectified and seek reimbursement. The other thing to note too is that I mentioned earlier MIM housing standards will come in from the 1st of September 2023 so this should be kept in mind when dealing with any maintenance requests. So the tenant has responsibilities just as long as well as the authority agent. So as per the list these are fairly straightforward certainly in regards to rent payments cleaning and not causing emissions by the use of the premises. And as I mentioned a moment ago the tenant is required to notify the agent of any repairs that need to be done for both routine repairs and emergency repairs. There must be contact details for the tenant in the agreement of who to notify and we do encourage tenants to ensure notifications are in writing and a copy kept. And finally just in regards to pets now I mentioned earlier that new pet laws new laws regarding pets came in on October 1st 2022. Now if you're negotiating with a tenant at the start and through the application process to have a pet then please ensure that your special terms of the agreement cover this. You can now as I mentioned earlier ask the tenant for professional carpet cleaning and pest control. The new laws though do allow a tenant to apply for a pet once they are in the tenancy and there's legislated reasons for you to refuse the tenant that request. So for information about that process please check all the details on our website. Now Deb's going to drop a link in with a flowchart on the approval process. Tenant is responsible for all nuisance that the pet may cause such as noise or damages and damage caused by pets is not fair wear and tear. Now one thing to note here is that there are some different rules for working dogs or retired working dogs and these are things like assistance guide or hearing dogs, corrective services dogs or police dogs. A tenant may keep a working dog that's one of those three at the property without your approval. So to keep yourself up to date we encourage you to jump on and have a look at our website and the details around pets there. All right so just as I mentioned there's a lot of information on our website in regards to the legislative changes that we've made so we would encourage you to jump on and have a look. Make sure that you've signed up for our monthly news email so we can keep you informed of any topics. There is a range of educational resources including recorded webinars on our legislation and key topics as well as our talking tenancies podcast series. Now as I said earlier your feedback on today's webinar will help us continue to improve our communication so please fill out the short survey that will come up on the screen at the end and you can also follow us on LinkedIn if you're on LinkedIn. Now Deb that's the information that I've got to present today. Do we have any questions there from anyone that need answering? Yes so we had some questions about rent in advance so if you could clarify what the maximum amounts of rent in advance that you can request are and maybe tell us a bit more about what happens if someone offers more than that. Yeah okay so in a fixed term agreement so if you're signing a fixed term tenancy you can ask for up to four weeks rent in advance. If it's a periodic tenancy then you can't ask for any more than two weeks in advance. Now the important thing too with the legislation is that it says that you can't ask for rent in a period for which rent has already been paid so if the tenancy starts let's say for example on the 1st of November and the tenant has paid four weeks rent in advance then their first payment of rent under the agreement will be four weeks after that so around about the 28th of November so that initial payment must be used up before they're required to pay rent again. Now in regards to a tenant offering more in advance so they can offer more they can offer as I said earlier up to the full amount of the rent for the whole tenancy. The thing is and as I mentioned it's important to work out whether that is in your best interest of the less or a landlord or even in the tenant's best interests so if for example you know something happens and the tenancy ends early then there might be issues with regards to refunding rent and those sorts of things so just to recap though the maximum that the lessor and the legislation allows for is four weeks in a fixed term agreement or two weeks in a periodic but the tenant can offer more. That's great thank you and I haven't seen any other questions come through in the chat so just a reminder to anyone on there if you have anything else that you're wondering what the question in nice and quickly sounds like we might have covered all the no worries at all well with that then I will thank everyone for coming along today as highlighted throughout the session our website does have a lot of information we'd recommend that you always download any form from our website to make sure that you use the most up-to-date versions so that is the end of today's session thanks so much for your participation please fill out the survey at the end of this will help our future outreach activities and help us deliver sessions that are useful and interesting to you take care and thanks very much for joining us today and I will now end the webinar