QLD Tenancy Agreement Special Terms

Hi all,

Under 'Part 3 Special Terms' in the General Tenancy Agreement (18a) for QLD, my previous PM has a term in there that states:

"If the lessor has an insurance policy, the tenant must not do or allow anything to be done that would invalidate any insurance policy for the premises or increase the premium of the policy. If the tenant does accidental damage to the property and the lessor wishes to claim on the insurance policy - the lessor may require the tenant to pay the "excess" on the insurance policy."

I changed to a new PM a few months ago. The lease is approaching renewal, so they are looking at the previous contract and asked if I still wanted this line put in. It is not part of their standard lease agreements.

Their concern is that it needs to conform with with the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008. They don't know whether it does or does not. They are obviously happy for me to keep it in there.

This special term, word for word, was put into my leases by two different PM's for both of my QLD properties, so I assume it is a pretty standard term, that would have already been checked by their respective lawyers.

Anyone have any insight into this?

Mike

 

I suspect its effectively void and unenforceable.

I can't see how it could be used without conflicting with the standard provisions on what damage a tenant is liable for.

You would think they are checked by lawyers. But the problem is that the lawyers that generally draft these things are not tenancy lawyers.

The WA equivalent has something like 6 pages of special conditions, 95% of which are void or redundant by my reckoning.