The Act is dead! Hail to the new Residential Tenancies Act 2010.

The point, however,  is to continuously improve it!

Today, 31st Jan 2011, the old Residential Tenancies act will be replaced by the 2010 Act

Overall, there are a lot of improvements for private tenants, and DH refers you to an excellent wrap at the Tenant Union's blog The Brown Couch

The good bits include:

• regulation of tenant databases (those evil repositories of haphazard misinformation that shafted you the way credit rating databases can, but without half the transparency)
• protection of tenancies in some cases where domestiv violence is an issue
• better protection for tenants in share-housing arrangements
• fee-free’ options for paying rent (can you believe landlords had the option of making you pay to be able to pay your rent.)
• longer notice periods for ‘no-grounds’ termination notices...
  which bring us to the bad bits....

The BAAAAAD bits

Like, how on earth, in a country like Australia, can landlords decide on a whim, to force you to move at any time it suits them??? And yet not so much as pay for your removal costs, not to mention compensation for time lost at work, stress, interruptions to your children's education, loss of social capital (that's "friendly neighbours", but sounds impressive if filing a complaint to anyone who will listen)

For factsheets explaining your rights as a tenant, see www.tenants.org.au. If you run into trouble, contact your local Tenants Advice & Advocacy Service (details also at www.tenants.org.au)