Victorian renters will soon be able to pay their bond directly to the Victorian Rental Tenancies Bond Authority as their online system undergoes a $9 million change.
The online system will also be integrated with systems used by estate agents and is expected to allow faster lodgements transfers and claims, as well as saving an estimated $3.5 million a year in operating costs.
It’ll use Service Victoria ID verification and is expected to smoothen bond repayments and loans, as well as changing details and claiming bonds online without paper forms or signatures.
Lisa Laffan, who has previously rented property in Queensland but now lives in Cobram, said the change would provide peace of mind to tenants.
“It’s also piece of mind to the tenant knowing it’s been paid and not sitting in someone else’s bank account until it’s moved to the bond agency,” she said.
Amanda Ramsay, a property and commercial manager with Andrew Jenkins Real Estate, said it was “about time“ the RTBA got an update in line with what other states did, including New South Wales.
“It really shouldn’t even be an issue with agents anyway, landlords are paying agents to ensure these procedure(s) are done correctly in the first place, and if you have a capable property manager it shouldn’t be an issue or a need for change,” she said.
She said real estate agents were under a legal obligation to lodge the bond and they would get audited if it was not lodged.
“Agents or rental providers will just need to do an extra check by checking the online portal to ensure bond has been received before handing out keys, which is what we already do for our NSW properties.”
Ms Ramsay said it also gave tenants in private rental agreements, where no real estate agent or agency is involved, some further peace of mind.
"I’ve heard of tenants going into some properties ... then they go to move out and the owners keep the bond and the tenants are screwed because the bond was never lodged properly,’’ she said.
“I can see there are a lot of unreasonable owners out there and for some tenants it may provide a bit of reassurance for themselves.”
However, Ms Ramsay said it was a bit early to say whether the change would be good or not without further information.
“if it’s just a case of agents still doing the lodgement and renters upload the money direct, then no issue, but if tenants are going to do the lodgement themselves then yes I can see this been an issue,” she said.
“Renters don’t always fill out details correctly and could put wrong details which will create issues for managing the tenancy.’’
Currently, tenants send bond money to rental providers or real estate agents directly, who must then lodge the bond with the RTBA; the responsibility to send the bond to the RTBA lies solely with rental providers.
March 2021 reforms allowed renters to apply to the RTBA directly to get all or part of their bond back without waiting for rental providers or agents to submit their claims or wait for their agreement to do so.
The RTBA notifies rental providers and co-tenants once they have done this and gives them 14 days to dispute this.
Nearly 15,000 claimed have been initiated since the new law came in with over half paid out directly to the renter.
The Victorian Government has already engaged 8Squad to work with the Department of Justice and Community Safety on the upgrade.