A statutory review of the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act, completed in 2021, made 48 recommendations to change the Act. The bill implements 21 of the recommendations.
Anoulack Chanthivong, NSW Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, has launched the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Amendment Bill 2024, which will amend the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013.
Among the changes, the bill will limit operators to using a single element to calculate a site fee increase under the fixed method, to improve clarity and certainty about such fee increases. The single element could be a percentage of the aged pension, a fixed percentage amount or an increase in proportion to variations in the consumer price index.
The bill also requires operators to update all existing agreements that use more than one element to calculate a fixed method site fee increase within three years of the commencement of the amendments.
However, Leo Patterson Ross, CEO of Tenants' Union of NSW, told The Weekly SOURCE that it will make representations for operators to be given one-year to get their house in order, instead of three.
“The other key point is the charging of electricity,” he said.
The Minister said some residential land lease communities outsource the operation of their electricity embedded network to third-party electricity retailers. Due to a current gap in the law, such third-party providers can charge residents as much as they want for electricity and are not bound by the current Act's limits on utility charges.
If the amendments are passed, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal NSW will set the median market price for electricity every 12 months and give notice of this to the Commissioner for Fair Trading. The Commissioner will then have to publish the required information on a publicly available website, making it accessible for operators and third parties.
The electricity supplier for the community must give written notice of the charges they pay for their electricity supply to residents once a year. Secondly, at least once every two years, the electricity supplier will need to review and compare their electricity supply contract with at least one other comparable offer from another electricity retailer.
The bill “will bring greater transparency to communities by, for example, requiring operators to give information to residents about proposed developments in the community that may impact them. It will reform voluntary sharing arrangements so that they continue to provide a flexible way to buy a home while minimising any potential exploitation of vulnerable home buyers. It will ensure fair outcomes for homeowners who face termination due to reasons outside of their control.”
Leo said the remaining 27 recommendations are now being addressed by the NSW Government.
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