REINSW April 2020 Lease Agreement

In process of trying to sign a new lease in NSW for the first time in many years, and have been presented with the latest REINSW pro-forma lease document (April 2020) that has WAY more Additional Terms that the last version I signed (Jan 2011). Oh, and don't get me started on the 30+ Special Conditions the agent added at the end.

Has anyone taken a close look at these? Some are absurd, some outrageous, and some look to be simply invalid. Do tenants read the lease before they sign? Are owners aware of the document your managing agents are using?

It might be ok, however, the landlords agent for the property is refusing to even discuss them let alone negotiate in good faith, and I have movers booked for Saturday. They have lied to me saying "this is from Fair Trading and all this is required by law", and simply bullied me "well if you don't sign this lease you can forget about moving in".

The headlines ones that I bothered to raise are:

57.13 - no inflammable materials - so no petrol for the mower making it impossible for me to comply with 57.6 (mow the lawns) - who wrote this rubbish

70.3 - return condition report within 7 days of receiving it - this was one of the changes in the Act should be from receiving the keys not the report

71.1 - 3 sub clauses shifting liability to the tenant, a prohibited term under 19(2)(c) in the new Act, and also at odds with Clause 40 of the Standard terms

77 - damages for loss of bargain, also falls foul of 19(2)(c), and Clause 40, and is just terrible anyway

Am I just be crazy about this? I don't want to be without a house on Monday, but I'm really uncomfortable about just rolling over and signing this as is.

 

It's a bit hard to return a report which isn't issued at the same time as the keys. 7 days from issue of the report is the requirement under the Act

Have they filled in the owner's contact details or left it as the agent's details?

Download the standard form off the OFT website & use that unless you agree with some of the additional conditions.

 

That's one of the things that's changed:

29(2): The landlord or landlord’s agent must, before or at the time the tenant signs the residential tenancy agreement, give to the tenant 2 copies, or one electronic copy, of the completed condition report.

29(3): The tenant must complete and give one copy of the condition report to the landlord or landlord’s agent not later than 7 days after taking possession of the residential premises and both the landlord and the tenant must retain a copy of the report.

No, that's something I just picked up on today. Will definitely ensure they do that.

That's what they asserted the REINSW lease was . I've offered twice to sign the OFT one, but that keeps getting ignored. Have filled in a copy and plan to take it with me when we go to sign.

I'd just like to be able to have a sensible professional discussion with them, but they don't seem to want to do that.

 

Just sign it and ignore all the clauses that are almost certainly void for contracting out?

Then report them to fair trading.

 

They cannot enforce any additional terms that conflict with the legislation, just sign it and you will know which ones they can and can't enforce.

Any of the terms in the REINSW lease that haven't been physically added by the agent will be enforceable.

I personally use ADL not REINSW however I would never sign a tenant with the free lease on OFT website on behalf of a landlord as it is very basic.