Unfortunately, when these laws are drafted, no-one actually gives two figs about what the Landlord or Owner of the property thinks.
The committees that draft and review the legislation before getting it enacted in parliament are chock full of Tenant representative bodies. If you're a Landlord, you're out on your own Jack.
I just checked the 1994 Qld RTA, and there is no mention of this clause in there.
The superceded version of the Qld RTA in 2008 slipped it in there. The chance to complain about it as a Landlord was back in 2007......you missed the boat chief by about 5 years !!!
Looking at the legislation, the 2008 is much tougher on Landlords than the 1994 version was. Heaps more penalties for Landlords, heaps more obligations on their part, and far less onerous conditions on the Tenants. The committee members representing the Tenant's side of the coin did extremely well. A job well done.
We had the same scenario here in WA. Our 1987 version of the RTA was tough on Landlords and easy on Tenants. The updated 2011 has swung the favour massively further towards the Tenants and further away from Landlords. It's gone from lopsided to plain outrageous. Surprisingly, new new version was swept on through both houses of Parliament with not a peep from anyone, both sides of politics firmly on the Tenants side.
The law was ugly before for Landlord's.....nowadays it's beyond a joke. The only one's still playing the woeful game are the Landlord's who don't bother to read the legislation that governs their properties....that's over 95% of Landlords I'd reckon.
