{"id":669266,"date":"2026-05-14T00:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/669266\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T00:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:04:11","slug":"landlords-hit-with-more-than-50k-in-fines-since-nsw-governments-ban-on-no-grounds-evictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/669266\/","title":{"rendered":"Landlords hit with more than $50k in fines since NSW government’s ban on no-grounds evictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of NSW landlords have been caught re-letting their homes after evicting tenants for supposedly ‘genuine’ reasons, which later turned out to be false.<\/p>\n

One Campsie real estate agent in Sydney’s south-west was fined $35,000 for evicting a tenant on the grounds that the landlord’s relative wanted to move into the property.<\/p>\n

No such family member ever turned up and the home was re-advertised the day after the tenant was evicted.<\/p>\n

\"Dressed<\/p>\n

Mr Chanthivong says more than 600 wrongful eviction claims were investigated by the rental taskforce.\u00a0 (AAP: Dan Himbrechts)<\/p>\n

Fair Trading Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said the case was one of more than 600 investigated by the NSW Rental Taskforce.<\/p>\n

“In this case, there seems to be a deliberate, contravention \u2026 to game the system,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And that’s just not on.”<\/p>\n

As part of its ban on no-grounds evictions introduced in May last year, the Minns government provided a list of reasons for which a tenant could be evicted, like major renovations or a landlord or relative moving in.<\/p>\n

However, to deter landlords from simply lying to their tenants and immediately readvertising their properties, the government created re-letting exclusion periods.<\/p>\n

For example, if a landlord evicted a tenant in order to conduct major repairs or renovations, they would have to wait four weeks before re-letting the property.<\/p>\n

If a tenant was evicted so a landlord or their relative could move in, the property could not be re-let for at least six months.<\/p>\n

\"Cash<\/p>\n

The government created re-letting exclusion periods to deter landlords from simply lying to their tenants. (ABC News: Monish Nand)<\/p>\n

The same waiting period would apply if a tenant had been evicted to prepare for the home’s demolition or sale.<\/p>\n

And if the landlord informed their tenant that the property would cease to be a rental, the home could not be re-let for a year.<\/p>\n

Mr Chanthivong said the rental taskforce would continue to monitor rental listings, looking for breaches.<\/p>\n

“For the small percentage that are deliberately doing the wrong thing, I just say watch out.”<\/p>\n

Catching the culprits<\/p>\n

While human beings are welcome to report breaches of the re-letting exclusion periods, the bulk of the rental taskforce’s tip-offs come from purpose-built software.<\/p>\n

It scans rental advertising websites to flag potential breaches.<\/p>\n

It then matches that information with bond data and mandatory end-of-tenancy surveys to identify properties that warrant further investigation.<\/p>\n

12 fines have been issued, totalling more than $50,000, while another 13 formal warnings have been delivered.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Trina Jones detailed the benefit of the taskforce’s purpose-built software. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Rental Commissioner Trina Jones said only four per cent of rental properties required investigation.<\/p>\n

“Innovation like the re-letting tool means as regulators we can have a greater focus on problem areas without burdening compliant landlords and agents.”<\/p>\n

Breakfast Point, Fernhill and Parramatta make up the top three NSW suburbs for infringements and warnings.<\/p>\n

Last line of defence<\/p>\n

In some circumstances, the re-letting exclusion period is the only barrier deterring a landlord from giving a tenant a false reason for eviction.<\/p>\n

For example, if they seek to evict a tenant for “significant renovations or repairs”, landlords are not required to provide any quotes, builders’ contracts or other documentary evidence.<\/p>\n

They simply have to write to the tenant, explaining their plans.<\/p>\n

The government was heavily criticised by the Tenants’ Union, Greens and Opposition for “watering down” the protections last year.<\/p>\n

Do you know more?<\/p>\n

If you have any information about the story, contact Nick Dole<\/a><\/p>\n

At the time, premier Chris Minns said re-letting exclusion periods would create a big enough financial penalty to deter most dishonest behaviour.<\/p>\n

If a landlord lied about conducting renovations, they would have to “eat four weeks of rent”, the premier said last year.<\/p>\n

Almost 12 months on, Mr Chanthivong said the relatively low number of fines was a sign of high compliance, not poor enforcement.<\/p>\n

“The vast majority of people do the right thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“However, for those who are looking to game the system, [we have] significant and innovative data and technology tools to be proactive, to identify, and investigate.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of NSW landlords have been caught re-letting their homes after evicting tenants for supposedly ‘genuine’ reasons, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[323074,13735,43,314749,44,16862,323071,309746,323073,323072,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-669266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-e-advertising-their-homes-during-the-waiting-period","tag-fines","tag-headlines","tag-landlords","tag-news","tag-nsw-government","tag-nsw-rentals","tag-rental-laws","tag-renting-crackdown","tag-renting-in-nsw","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}