Guest – Scott Catherall – Financial and Assurance Services

Host – Belinda Heit – People and Culture

Host: Welcome to the Talking Tenancies podcast, brought to you by the Residential Tenancies Authority. I'm your host Belinda Heit. Join me as we explore everything you need to know about renting in Queensland, with experts from the RTA and industry. We're here to help make renting work for everyone.

As an experienced regulator, the RTA acts in the public interest to support and protect Queenslanders by addressing issues of alleged non-compliance with the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 in a timely, informed and consistent way. We're committed to upholding and enforcing compliance with the Act through our Compliance and Enforcement team.

Today's expert from the RTA is Scott Catherall from our compliance and enforcement team. Welcome, Scott.

Guest: Thank you for having me.

Host: Now, can you tell us about your role at the RTA and what you're responsible for?

Guest: I'm the manager of the Compliance and Enforcement team here at the RTA. I'm new to the RTA and so is my role along with my team. I'm responsible for monitoring and improving the rate of compliance with the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, which we call the Act.

We investigate alleged breaches of the Act. This includes potential breaches that we come across through our own monitoring as well as responding to customer complaints that involved an alleged breach.

Host: Now a lot has changed in the area of compliance and enforcement, along with investigations including the release of the Compliance and Enforcement Action Plan and the introduction of your role as manager within the team, as you've just told us now. Can you give us a little more background on the changes and why they've taken place?

Guest: Yeah, exactly right, Belinda. I’m new to the RTA and so is my role. I believe the last time you had someone on the podcast, the team had released its three-year strategy from 2021-2023 and the team underwent a name change, from Investigations to what it is today, Compliance and Enforcement.

Now we’re back and we have recently released our Compliance and Enforcement Action Plan which outlines the compliance and enforcement priorities the RTA will focus on as a fair, valued and impactful regulator of Queensland’s residential tenancy laws.

Further to that, the Action Plan will also work towards achieving a core strategic priority for the RTA by driving regulatory compliance across the sector. The plan really reflects our role as Queensland’s rental regulator, and our strengthened approach to enforcement. Particularly for repeat or opportunistic offending.

Host: When you hear 'plan’ in a government context, you might think it's a lengthy document, but it's actually quite short and easy to digest, isn't it?

Guest: That's right. Just two pages that outline priority offences, our compliance and enforcement action, and enforcement outcomes. We really wanted the plan to be easy to follow so that it can help people understand compliance in the rental sector.

Host: So if we get into the details, can you tell us a bit more about what the priority offences are that the plan sets out?

Guest: Yeah, some of the priority offences have come from new legislation that was passed in 2023, such as not being able to increase rent prices within 12 months and non-compliance with repair orders.

Then we've got priority offences that are based on what's trending recently. This includes unlawful entry, breach of terms of a tenancy agreement, providing false and misleading information, rent not being offered at a fixed amount and non-lodgement of a bond. We'll keep reviewing the priorities in line with sector trends and changes.

For example, if there were changes to legislation which effects compliance, we'll update the action plan with any new offences.

Host: That makes complete sense. So, are these priority offences the only non-compliance issues that the team investigates or are there others too?

Guest: It's a great question. The RTA can investigate any matters which have penalty units attached to them, as per the Act. There's around 130 sections of the Act that have penalty units attached, so we've investigated offences relating to any of these, or priority areas which are actually just a small subset.

Host: So as part of the plan, how does the team go about identifying and acting on alleged offences, and I suppose, educating the sector to ensure greater compliance with Queensland rental laws?

Guest: Well, as we talked about already, those priority offences are a key part of the plan and the ones that we'll be particularly focused on identifying and investigating. But we're also going to be targeting repeat offenders in cases where conduct doesn't meet community expectations, or it shows a disregard for the law. As well as responding to investigation requests that we receive.

The plan also involves proactively monitoring and investigating public reports of non-compliance. This can include information from allegations received from stakeholders, media and social media coverage, and into government agencies. For example, if we see a media story which mentions a rental issue, that could be a compliance breach, we'll look into that and see if it needs to be investigated. We'll also look out for rental ads with compliance issues such as not including a fixed price.

A big part of it also involves the sector engagement that you mentioned. We've already spoken to stakeholders about the plan at some of the RTA's stakeholder engagement sessions to ensure that they are across these key enforcement trends and actions. We'll be working with sector stakeholders to improve awareness of how to report matters for investigation, what issues are suitable for investigation and promoting the channels that can be used to request an investigation.

The engagement works to provide an opportunity for the sector to hone in on its compliance in our priority areas and encourages voluntary compliance. The RTA also has a dedicated communication and education team who do a lot of work to educate the rental sector, particularly about legislation.

Host: Now, if someone wanted to report a non-compliance issue, what does this process look like and how do the investigations work?

Guest: As I mentioned earlier, we conduct both proactive and reactive investigations. It's important to know that the RTA can only investigate matters that have penalty units attached to them, as per the Act. So, the first step is to identify whether the issue you are having is eligible for an investigation.

We've got a tool to help you do that. We have created an interactive investigation web page which is available 24/7. The page asks you questions about your case and lets you know if you're suitable for an RTA investigation, or if another service is more suitable, like our free dispute resolution service.

If the matter is suitable for RTA investigation, we provide an online investigation kit, which customers complete and submit to us. This kit includes a form, which you can use to submit your investigation request and it provides information about what supporting documentation you need to provide to the RTA. We're constantly looking at ways to make our process simpler and more accessible to the customer, so we'll continue to improve this.

Host: And when you talk about supporting documentation there, what does that look like and how is it used?

Guest: Yeah, good question. If you're having an issue with your tenancy, it's really important that you obtain as much information as you can before the tenancy ends. Supporting documentation such as photographs are good evidence for investigation, so it's important to get them before you lose access to the property. Other things that can be useful include tenant ledgers, time stamped text messages, emails and notes about the issue.

Host: And what are some examples of things that the Compliance and Enforcement team won't investigate?

Guest: Well, the RTA does not investigate breaches of the act that do not attract a penalty. Some examples include claims of money owed, tenancy disagreements, property maintenance disputes, bond refund disputes, general property manager or property owner behaviour, which is covered by the Office of Fair Trading.

Where matters aren't suitable for investigation, the RTA's free dispute resolution service may be able to help parties negotiate an outcome each year. We help 22,000 customers resolve 3 in every 4 disputes that come through our free service.

Host: That's pretty impressive. Now I've got a scenario for you, Scott. If someone has used the website and found their issue is eligible for investigation, what happens once your team receives that request?

Guest: Yeah. Our first step is to assess the case. Although people can use the webpage to check eligibility, we need to delve a little bit deeper to see if the matter is definitely an offence that can be investigated by the RTA.

If we proceed with an investigation, we'll then ask for further information from the complainant and any witnesses, and gather evidence. We will then issue an allegation letter to the lessor or the lessor's agent outlining the allegations and asking them to respond within 14 days.

We'll then conduct further evidence gathering and interviews, as required, and examine the evidence to ensure we have sufficient information to prove the offence. If we have enough evidence, we'll then carry out a public interest test.

Host: So, what are the things that you would consider as part of that public interest process.

Guest: Well, as an impartial regulator of the Act, the RTA will always ensure that every investigation is considered on a case-by-case basis. As part of the public interest process, we take into account things like the severity of the offence and past behaviour, where we're deciding what enforcement action to take. So, we consider things like the level of harm to the complainant.

For an unlawful entry case, for example, we just set the level of harm by looking at who was at home at the time and what happened during the entry. Did it cause the tenant to feel unsafe in their home? We'll also look at whether the actions were deliberate and dishonest, and what the respondent did to try and mitigate the harm once they became aware of the issue.

For example, if it related to a bond not being lodged, did they immediately lodge the bond once they were told that it hadn't been lodged? Some non-compliance issues could be a genuine mistake, such as an administrative error. Or just a misunderstanding about the law. We also consider the likelihood of recurrence and whether the enforcement action can help reduce the likelihood of the offence occurring again.

Host: What do the possible outcomes of an investigation look like when non-compliance has occurred?

Guest: Yeah, great question. We have three enforcement outcomes that can occur as a result of an investigation. Firstly, issuing a notice of non-compliance. This is usually when there is no prior history of non-compliance with the Act or in isolated instances where there are mitigating circumstances.

We can also issue a monetary fine, known as a penalty infringement notice or a PIN. This is usually for repeat non-compliant actions or where deliberate or potential harm was caused. For serious matters, the RTA can also pursue prosecution through the Magistrates Court.

Host: Now this is a lot that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to compliance and enforcement of the Act, Scott, that many people may not be aware of. So, thanks for giving us that insight today and for helping us to get a greater understanding of the work that the Compliance and Enforcement team does at the RTA.

Thank you for listening to the Talking Tenancies Podcast. For more information about the residential Tenancies authority, visit rta.qld.gov.au.