Pets and minor modifications such as hanging pictures or installing new shower heads will be allowed in most rental properties as a new tranche of rental reforms take effect on Monday.
Under the changes a landlord would be only able to refuse if written laws, local laws or by-laws prevent them, or if a good reason can be provided to the Commissioner for Consumer Protection.
Housing Minister John Carey, Premier Roger Cook, and Commerce Minister Sue Ellery.
Disputes about pets and minor modifications will be heard in new processes with the Commissioner for Consumer Protection to hear from both sides before making an independent ruling.
As part of this next stage of the state government’s rental reforms taking effect on Monday, rent increases are only allowed once every 12 months, down from six months previously.
RSPCA WA chief executive Ben Cave said the organisation had long advocated for reforms to make it easier for tenants to keep pets.
“The current tight, competitive and expensive rental market has brought the need for changes to rental laws into sharp relief,” he said.
“More than 2000 animals were surrendered to RSPCA WA in the past 12 months and our tracking shows over a quarter of all surrender requests in that time were linked to housing issues.”
Cave said not being able to secure a pet-friendly rental was among the top three reasons why people said they could no longer keep their pets.
“It’s heartbreaking, not just for owners and their animals, but for the staff here too who manage these traumatic separations,” he said.
Property Investment Professionals of Australia chair Nicola McDougall said there was no question rental markets around the nation continued to be severely undersupplied with vacancy rates hovering at historically low rates.
“The myriad new rental reforms being proposed or enacted are doing nothing to encourage existing investors to stay the course nor to motivate potential new entrants into the property investment market,” she said.
RSPCAWA chief Ben Cave welcomes the latest rent reforms. Credit: RSPCAWA
“One really has to wonder if state governments understand how their unnecessarily restrictive policy decisions are worsening the rental crisis or, in fact, if they know what they are doing at all.”
But Commerce Minister Sue Ellery said the reforms meant a rental would feel more like a home now for tenants.
“Empowering the Commissioner for Consumer Protection to handle disputes about pets and minor modifications will allow for these issues to be resolved in a fast, fair and transparent way,” she said.
Properties continued to rent quickly across 2023-24 with the median leasing time around two weeks for most of the financial year, rising to 18 days at the end of June.
The latest reforms follow a ban in May on soliciting rent bidding and empowering tenants to challenge retaliatory action by landlords in court.
A streamlined bond release process was expected to be introduced next year.
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