The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2020 is now law.
One of the changes that comes into effect immediately is the change to rent increases which means that from 12 August 2020 rent cannot be increased more than once every 12 months.
If you gave your tenant notice to increase their rent prior to 12 August 2020 then that notice is valid. Just check though that the 180 day rule (being able to increase rent every 180 days provided you have a clause in your tenancy agreement) comes into effect on or after 26th September 2020. This is the date that the current rent freeze (due to Covid-19 urgent management legislation) is in place until.
Any rent increase notice issued after 12 August 2020 has to comply with the new RTA Amendment Act 2020. This means that the tenancy must have started at least 12 months ago and the rent increase can’t be applied any sooner than 12 months from the last increase.
For example if the tenancy started on 15 July 2019 and you gave your tenant notification that you intend to increase their rent from 1 October 2020 that will be valid.
If though the tenancy started on 15 July 2019 and you gave your tenant notification that you intend to increase their rent from 15 September 2020 that will be invalid as it contravenes the emergency Covid-19 legislation which states that no rent increases are permitted until 26 September 2020.
