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Where we share our clients’ experiences, names and any identifying information has been changed to protect client confidentiality.  \nAbout the Illawarra Legal Centre  \nThe ILCis a community legal centre providing free legal advice, casework and community legal education to clients in the Illawarra area. We have provided free legal services since 1985 across a range of areas including domestic violence, discrimination, victims’ compensation, welfare rights, financial counselling, child support and tenant advice and casework. We assist approximately 5,000 clients per annum with direct advice, advocacy and casework.  \nAs a part of the ILC’s services, the Centre operates the Illawarra and South Coast Tenants Advocacy and Advice Service’ as a part of NSW Fair Trading’s Tenants Advice and Advocacy Program. The Service provides services from the Illawarra down to the NSW southern border, including the Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama, Wingecarribee, Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla, and Bega Valley areas. Our Service dealt with 1,204 cases in the 2022-23 financial year, providing advice, assistance and representation to over 1,000 clients. Our Service operates a free phone and in-person advice service to inform tenants of their rights, appears before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal as a representative for disadvantaged tenants and also provides duty advocacy services at NCAT hearings in our catchment.  \nThe Approach of this Submission  \nThese submissions focus on enhancing the overall fairness and equity of the NSW rental system. This is in accordance with the Minister’s announcement of this consultation and the election commitments made by the NSW Labour Party in the 2023 NSW election. Central to these recommendations is the recognition of housing as a human right and ensuring that the rights of both landlords and tenants are respected, balanced, upheld and considered with equal weight. This includes a move towards more stable housing for renters, reducing unnecessary costs to those who have less assets and allowing people to better save money and have access to adequate housing over their entire life.  \nOverview of Positions  \nThroughout this paper the ILC’s positions can generally be summarised as follows:  \n1. ‘No grounds’ terminations should be abolished for both periodic and fixed-term leases. Without better protections against no-grounds evictions, including at the end of fixedterm leases, renters cannot enforce other rights without fear of reprisal. We recommend the prioritising of reforms to ensure landlords must provide renters with a valid reason for terminating a tenancy to provide better protection against arbitrary and unfair evictions.  \n2. The reasonable grounds for terminating a tenancy should be implemented with the removal of the grounds for preparing for sale and conducting repairs.  \n3. Tenants should be protected from landlords misusing the reasonable grounds. Landlords should be required to provide evidence for the termination reason and landlords should be temporarily banned from renting out a property with penalties and compensation payable for breaching the rules.  \n4. A standard Termination Information Statement should be supplied to tenants along with a Notice of Termination to rectify the information imbalance between tenants and landlords.  \n5. Landlords should be given 14 days to consider a tenant’s pet application and should be required to make an application to the Tribunal if they want to stop a pet application unless one of the specific grounds for refusal exist. Landlords should only be permitted to refuse a request for a pet under exceptional limited circumsta","cbCaivqtQYdcKrBU","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivqtQYdcKrBU","pdf",859449,61,"English","# Submission on improving NSW rental laws\n## About the Illawarra Legal Centre\n## The approach of this submission\n## Overview of positions","[{\"question\":\"What is the main purpose of the Illawarra Legal Centre’s submission?\",\"answer\":\"To improve the fairness and equity of the NSW rental system by strengthening protections for both renters and landlords and ensuring housing rights are respected.\"},{\"question\":\"What reforms does the submission call for regarding tenancy termination?\",\"answer\":\"It recommends abolishing no-grounds terminations for both periodic and fixed-term leases, and implementing reasonable grounds while removing grounds related to preparing for sale and conducting repairs.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the submission propose handling rent increases?\",\"answer\":\"It calls for placing the onus on landlords to prove a rent increase is not excessive when it exceeds 115% of CPI in Sydney, and introducing a uniform system limiting rent increases to once every 12 months.\"}]","Illawarra Legal Centre - Submission on Improving NSW Rental Laws | PDF",1789836243]