The RTA’s latest annual report demonstrates how the organisation supported Queenslanders to navigate rental law reforms, expanded its compliance and enforcement activities and returned $24.6m in outstanding rental bonds. 

The RTA Annual Report 2023–24 is now available and documents the RTA’s achievements and performance against its RTA Strategic Plan 2022–26 over the last financial year.

RTA Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Smith said the organisation's key focus was helping customers navigate rental law changes implemented under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024.

‘In partnership with the Queensland Government and our sector stakeholders, we provided Queenslanders with targeted and impartial information to help them prepare for and understand ongoing rental law changes. This year customers awarded our Contact Centre an average satisfaction rating of 81%, which reflects the value Queenslanders place on our services,’ Ms Smith said.

‘Our goal is to ensure the sector has access to timely, accurate and impartial information and services to help guide tenants/residents and property managers/owners through any changes to residential rental laws and RTA services.’

The organisation also launched its Compliance and Enforcement Action Plan 2024 which outlines the new and trending offences, including breaches of new rental laws, that are being prioritised for investigation.

‘We expanded our proactive monitoring and enforcement activities and have published two new forms for customers to Report an advertised rental property for repair concerns and Report an advertised property or room without a fixed price. This helps us to investigate and, where possible, take timely and decisive action,’ Ms Smith said.

Putting money back in Queenslanders’ pockets was another priority for the organisation, which ran two public awareness campaigns in July 2023 and March 2024 urging tenants/residents and property managers/owners to claim over 114,000 outstanding bond payments held by the RTA.

‘Our online form enables customers to claim any past and unreturned bond payments, which helped us successfully return almost $24.6M in outstanding bond payments to 22,866 customers.’  

On the recent Talking Tenancies oustanding bond payments podcast episode, Ms Smith reminded customers that they can update their contact details and claim any forgotten bonds at any time.

Alongside rental law changes education, compliance activities and returning bond payments to Queenslanders, the RTA:

• answered 310,076 calls and received an average customer satisfaction rating of 81% for our service delivery
• conciliated 22,765 disputes and resolved 76.5% where both parties agree to participate
• received 345 investigation requests, commenced 191 proactive investigations, and finalised 383 investigations
• processed 875,686 online requests via RTA Web Services, with 75% of all bond and tenancy forms submitted via digital channels
• provided same-day processing of bond refunds at 0.7 days on average  
• participated in 116 community education and stakeholder engagement activities to 4,730 people with an average satisfaction rate of 89% for activities where feedback was received.

A complete summary of all RTA financial year achievements can be found on pages 48–51 of the report.