Image: Greens MP Jenny Leong is calling on the NSW government to regulate third party rental services. Photo: Pixabay.
By JACOB DE NOBREGA
Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong has spoken out against third-party rental services for “contributing to the soaring cost of rent”, and taking advantage of tenants.
“Renters need urgent protections from third party services who are preying on and profiting off the housing crisis” Leong said in a statement.
Third party rental services are services that allows landlords to outsource rent collection to a third party. Rather than landlord’s or agents chasing up tenants for rent, these services can also automatically deduct these payments from the tenant’s credit card.
While there are some benefits to landlords and tenants using these third-party services, including reduced workloads for real estate agents, there are some issues that arise. These third-party rental services usually require a fee to use which must be paid by either the landlord or tenant, with the tenant’s agreement, however, many landlords are sneaking it into their rent payment.
Personal information often required
These services also require personal information and background checks of tenants.
“Alarm bells should be ringing that these third-party services have an immense amount of power, and an immense amount of personal information” Leong said.
“Renting in NSW is stressful enough, without the added – and very legitimate – fears around personal information that recent high profile data breaches have exposed.”
Under the NSW Residential Tenancies Act 2010, “a landlord or landlord’s agent must permit a tenant to pay the rent by at least one means for which the tenant does not incur a cost,” meaning in some cases these third-party rental services are illegal if they are being forced on the tenant by the landlord or agent.
The Greens are calling on the state government to “review, regulate and provide much needed oversight to the pervasive use of third party rental services”.
