Host - Belinda Heit – Communication and Education – RTA 

Guest – Sam Galer – Education – RTA 

Host: New Queensland rental laws take effect from 1 May 2025. If you are a property manager, owner or tenant, it's important you understand what these changes mean for you. Today I'm joined by Sam Galer who is going to take us through the 1 May changes to entry frequency and notice periods. Welcome Sam.

Guest: Thanks for having me back.

Host: Now, we're glad to have you back. But before we discuss today's topic, could you tell us about your role and what you're responsible for here at the RTA?

Guest: Yes, certainly. So my title is Principal Project Officer. Basically, I work with the new legislative changes that have taken place over the last couple of years and the ones coming up on 1 May 2025. And I help educate and implement those new changes.

Host: Yes, we've seen you getting out and about doing that. Now, we have you here today to talk all things entry. Could you start by explaining why a property manager or owner would need to enter a premises?

Guest: Yeah, sure. So when a tenant is renting a property or a room, it's essentially their home. And as such, they're entitled to quiet enjoyment of the premises. That relates to peace, comfort and privacy that needs to be respected.

But throughout the tenancy, we know that the property manager or the owner might need to enter that home for various reasons. Some of these things can include an inspection of the property, if there’re repairs that need to be carried out, or maintaining or replacing smoke alarms. And if it's in rooming accommodation, there's also an entry reason for cleaning the room.

Host: Right. So if a property manager or owner would like to enter a premises, what can they do to ensure a tenant's quiet enjoyment is respected?

Guest: Yeah, so as I talked about, they can only enter the premises for a valid reason and the correct notice has to be given. So that's using the entry notice. It's the Form 9 for a general tenancy or the Form R9 in rooming accommodation and they're available on the RTA website.

There are some exceptions to the rule though where an entry notice is not required and I'll go through them. So the first one is based on mutual agreement with the tenant. So if the tenant agrees for entry to happen at a certain time, good to have that documented, but you don't need to have the entry notice as such. If it's an emergency, and also if a property manager or owner reasonably believes that entry is necessary to protect the premises or the contents of the premises from imminent or further damage.

Host: Okay, so what's the correct notice period when issuing a Form 9?

Guest: So it depends on the reason for the entry, but from 1 May 2025, there are some new time frames that are coming in for entering a rental property. So they're essentially being adjusted where they were 24 hours for a lot of entry reasons previously. It's now going to be moved to 48 hours. So it's an increase in the time of notice that you have to give.

Now that notice period doesn't apply to general inspections. That remains a 7 day notice period and cleaning under a rooming accommodation agreement, which is still only 24 hours notice for that one.

Host: So the 48 hour notice period does not apply in emergencies if the tenant is in agreement and if a property manager owner believes that entry is necessary to protect the premises or its contents. Is that right?

Guest: Yes. Yes, that's right. Like you said, it's important to remember a tenant and a property owner or manager are able to mutually agree to shorter entry notice periods too. So as I said, if they've reached an agreement, then there can be whatever notice period that they agree to.

Host: Got it. So what about entry after a notice to leave or notice of intention to leave has been served?

Guest: Yeah, and that's a really good point, Belinda. So from 1 May 2025, if a property manager or an owner serves a notice to leave, or if a tenant issues a notice of intention to leave - so these are the notices that signify that the tenancy is coming to an end on a certain date - in those instances, if those notices have been issued, it then puts a restriction on entry. So a property owner or a manager is then not able to enter the property more than 2 times within a 7 day period.

Host: Right. Are there exceptions to that rule too?

Guest: There are. So during the 7 day period, a property manager or owner is not prevented from entering the premises if the entry is for one of these following reasons, and I'll go through them under a general tenancy agreement.

So again, the one that comes through all the time is by mutual agreement with the tenant. If it's to comply with the Fire Services Act 1990, so if it's in relation to smoke alarms, to comply with the Electrical Safety Act 2022 in relation to approved safety switches. So these are obviously safety related reasons. Or again, if a property manager or owner reasonably believes that entry is necessary to protect the premises or its contents from imminent or further damage.

Under rooming accommodation, there's also some exceptions to the more than twice in a 7 day period. Those are, again, you'd be surprised by mutual agreement with the resident, in case of an emergency, if the provider or the provider's agent reasonably believes that the room has been abandoned and then also to carry out urgent repairs to the rental premises or its facilities.

And so the things that we're looking at there are repairing facilities that provide gas, electricity or water, making repairs to prevent imminent flooding or water damage, emergency repairs to the roof of the premises, and repairing faults or damage that makes the premises unsafe, insecure or unreasonably disrupts the residents use of the premises.

Host: Okay, so what is the new requirement of entry by a selling agent in rooming accommodation agreements?

Guest: Yeah, so with a selling agent, obviously, in rooming accommodation, the resident will normally sort of pay their rent to the agent, provider or the provider's agent. But if the selling agent is not the same person that the resident normally pays their rent to, then they need to provide written notice. The selling agent needs to provide written notice of the entry to the provider as well as the resident. And it's just about communication, making sure that everyone knows why they're coming through.

Host: So what can a tenant or property manager or owner do if they feel the correct process for entry has not been followed?

Guest: Yeah, it's important and these are clear things throughout a tenancy that are really important for a successful tenancy.

First one, communicate openly working to understand each other's circumstances. So we can always sort of jump in a little bit early, but if we can think about where the other person is coming from and how they might feel, it's always going to be a better option. Working together to develop an acceptable solution. And a lot of tenancies across Queensland do this really well.

Documenting any decisions made. So I'll always recommend that you put whatever you've decided in writing. It might just be an email to the other party just confirming what we've discussed so that everyone's got a record of what's been agreed to. And yeah, it sort of ties in with your communication skills really.

So tenants and property managers or owners should speak to one another and attempt to resolve the issue in the first instance. But look, if an agreement can't be reached, the RTA's free impartial dispute resolution service can hopefully help.

Host: Thank you for joining us, Sam. You can find more information about everything we've discussed today, including the rules around entry frequency and notice periods, on our website at rta.qld.gov.au. Thank you for listening to the Talking Tenancies podcast. For more information about the Residential Tenancies Authority, visit rta.qld.gov.au.