 Hello, my name is Deb and I work at the Residential Tenancies Authority or RTA for short. This is the second video in a series about renting in Queensland for students. This may be your first time living independently or living in Australia and we want to help set you up for success. Before we get started, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this country and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. In our first video, we talked about the four stages of renting and we covered things to do before you rent. In this video, we'll talk about what happens at the start of a tenancy. We'll also talk about how to handle things that may happen during the tenancy. You can watch our third video for more information about what happens at the end of a tenancy. When you're about to start a tenancy, you'll be the approved applicant for the very more property and you'll be asked to sign the paperwork that starts the tenancy. Your landlord or agent should give you a general tenancy agreement or a rooming agreement. This is also known as your contract or lease arrangement. It will have standard terms and special terms. These terms explain what you can and cannot do, when the agreement starts and ends, how much rent is and when the rent needs to be paid. Remember to check for any charges and fees. Some methods of paying rent have associated charges. For example, third party platforms may charge a fee of a dollar amount or a percentage per transaction and this can add up to hundreds of dollars over a tenancy. If you rent a room, there may also be prescribed house rules for you to follow. If you rent a townhouse or a unit, there will be additional body corporate or strata bylaws. You need to follow these. Your landlord or agent will also give you a copy of the Pocket Guide for Tenants Form 17A. You can also find this on our website in several different languages. You need to be given a receipt for any money you pay for rent or bond. If you pay a rental bond, you can submit that directly to the RTA or via your landlord or agent. We'll talk more about options for your bond on the next slide. You'll also be given a copy of an entry condition report. You have seven days to complete this. We'll talk more about it in a moment. With all your paperwork, remember, read before you sign, make sure you understand what you're signing and keep the paperwork in a safe place during your tenancy. You may be asked to pay a bond, as I was saying before. A bond is a security deposit paid at the start of a tenancy. If no money is owed at the end of your tenancy, you get your bond back. The RTA provides online services to manage your bond. On our website, you can lodge a bond online. You can arrange for a change of bond contributors during the tenancy. This might be useful if you're in a share house and there is a change of tenants. You can also request a bond refund online at the end of the tenancy. To use our online services for bonds, you'll need a QGov account. The QGov account has specific ID requirements. If you cannot meet these requirements, you can still use our paper bond forms. You can also pay your bond to your agent or manager. They must provide you with a receipt and they must lodge the bond with the RTA within 10 days. The other paperwork we wanted to talk about in more detail is the entry condition report. This will be given to you when you sign the lease and it's an important record of how the property or room was at the start of the tenancy. This will be compared with the condition report at the end of a tenancy to decide whether you should get a full bond refund. The manager or agent will fill in their notes on the entry condition report but there is also a section for you to record notes as well. You should check if everything is clean, undamaged and working. It's important to go through room by room. Write down if there's anything wrong, broken or not clean. You don't want to be held responsible at the end of the tenancy for something that was damaged by the previous occupants before you moved in. Take photos or videos to help with recording any property condition issues. You have seven days to sign your copy of the entry condition report and return it to your manager or agent. In part one of this video series, we covered rights and responsibilities when renting. There's a summary on this screen as a reminder for you. It's important for the tenants, landlords and agents to keep up with their responsibilities during the tenancy as this will help the tenancy to go smoothly. However, sometimes there are things that go wrong in a tenancy. For example, if you're not meeting your tenant responsibilities you can be given an official notice called a notice to remedy breach. This notice lets you know the agent or landlord thinks you have done something that you agreed not to do when you signed the lease. As a tenant you might get a notice to remedy breach for several reasons. The most common reasons are if you don't pay rent on time, if you're too noisy, if you damage the property or if you have a guest who damages it, or if there are people or pets living in the property who were not included in the agreement. If you receive a notice to remedy breach you need to understand what the breach is and fix it. If you don't fix it you may be asked to move out. On the other hand, if your landlord or agent is doing the wrong thing you can issue them with a notice to remedy breach. Some landlord or agent breaches are if they unlawfully enter the property without notice or if they're not doing repairs within a reasonable time frame. You should never ignore any notices you receive. If you're sharing with others make sure everyone is aware of communication from your agent or landlord. If you're not sure what a notice means contact the RTA and we can help. There are special rules if you're a student living in what is mostly student accommodation. In this case if you stop being a student then you might be asked to move out within one month's notice even if that will be before the end date of your lease agreement or you can choose to give one month's notice that you will be moving out because you are no longer a student. If this situation comes up for you call us to double check if this rule might apply to your type of accommodation and we also recommend that you talk to your agent or landlord about your circumstances to see what you can negotiate. Just to quickly recap our top tips for students are communication is important right through your tenancy and most issues can be resolved with open and early communication. Remember if you're unsure then ask don't ignore any issues or things you don't understand. Also make sure you check your mail or email for any notices. You need to know if you get an entry notice for repairs or inspections or if you get a notice to remedy breach. Think about how you will manage the behaviour of your guests especially when having parties. Your lease agreement includes the requirement that a tenant and their guests will not interfere with the peace comfort or privacy of a neighbour. If you're offered an extension or renew all of your tenancy remember to check the terms before you accept. Double check rent amounts and dates on the new agreement. Keep the property clean and in good condition so you're ready for inspections. This will also help with claiming the bond back at the end of the tenancy. If you're in a share arrangement and one person wishes to move out there are steps that need to be followed. Call us if you need help with this process. Remember our website has a lot of information including videos publications and podcast episodes along with bond lodgment and refund services. If you have any issues during your tenancy you can apply to the RTA for our dispute resolution service. This is a free and confidential service and our conciliators are impartial. This means they won't take sides or make decisions. They are there to help both parties to talk about the dispute to reach an outcome. Please reach out to us if you have questions. Our contact centre is available Monday to Friday and we have free access to interpreters. We wish you all the very best with your studies and when you're ready for information about the end of the tenancy check out part three of this video series.