[This is where you will write the bulk of your personal story - we can’t help you too much but we have provided some guidance and a suggestion for how you can start this section.]

Everyone deserves to live in a healthy, affordable home. But this isn’t the case for many renters. Our/their homes are too cold in winter and too hot in summer. Renters are facing higher energy costs and indoor conditions that make us/them and our/their families sick.

[Sentence introducing yourself, e.g. “I am a renter in Sydney’s Inner West. I’ve been renting for my whole adult life, and now live in an apartment with my partner and our dog”.

Share your experience of renting a home which was not energy efficient and the impact on you. It's really important to paint a vivid picture here, we want the people reading your experiences to really understand them. You can talk about the impact sleepless nights have had on your work, your ability to perform caring duties, to study - or how you struggle over winter and being forced to choose between being cold or facing large energy bills. eg. “My house is very hot in summer. We have no air conditioner, no ceiling fans and no flyscreens. We often cannot sleep in our bedroom as it's too hot and have to sleep in the living room downstairs with a pedestal fan blowing hot air. I have asked the landlord if they can make some changes to make the house but they have said no.”

If you have friends of family members who have shared experiences with you, you can also share them here. For example:

“My daughter rents her home in Leichhardt, when it gets really hot she comes and stays at our house as we have air conditioning. She has said that she can’t cook during summer because it heats her home up too much so she often relies on take away food which gets really expensive.”]

The benefits of introducing minimum energy efficiency rental standards for renters are:

• Make rental homes healthier and safer, cooler in summer, warmer in winter,
• Reduce energy bills and supporting renters with cost of living pressures,
• Make renters feel more comfortable, making their homes feel like home,
• Reduce household emissions and helping NSW reach net zero targets,
• Make homes more climate resilient and future proofing housing stock.

[If you can share specific ways these benefits relate to the home you rent or your energy bills or comfort in your home please do as this will have the most impact on the people reading your submission]

The benefits of minimum energy efficiency standards are clear, but there are some challenges that need to be carefully managed to make sure renters are better off overall.

Renters should not be responsible for ensuring landlords comply with MEERS in the home they are renting. It should not fall on renters to report or investigate what features or performance rating a home has.

Renters already carry the load of reporting repairs and taking action against their landlord in the Tribunal if they don't do repairs. They should not be burdened with any of the compliance or enforcement of MEERS.

There is a power imbalance between renters and landlords which we know means many renters are concerned to raise issues or ask for repairs. Renters are worried their rent might be increased or they will be given a termination notice. These are also challenges that must be addressed when introducing MEERS.

[If you have experiences you can share which relate to these challenges or other challenges of introducing MEERS then please share here]

Mandatory minimum energy efficiency standards should apply to all rental properties, including:

• Apartments, houses, granny flats and villas
• private residential rental
• public housing
• community housing, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing
• boarding and rooming houses
• Build to rent
• Affordable housing
• Short term rentals
• land lease communities, including residential parks, mobile homes
• premises on the campus of or owned by educational institutions
• employer provided housing
• retirement villages
• aged care accommodation
• transitional and emergency accommodation

Public and community housing, caravan and residential park accommodation, specialist disability accommodation, boarding or rooming houses, nursing homes, and retirement villages are home to some of the more vulnerable members of our society, who would benefit the most from energy efficiency reforms. Lengthy delays or lowering the requirements in implementing the standards for these rental properties should be avoided.

For simplicity and fairness, we believe the requirements should be the same across NSW.

A home energy rating approach will  provide the best outcome for renters, rental homes and have wider society benefits.  It better reflects how homes actually perform and delivers long-term consistency and quality across the rental sector. It allows landlords to be responsive to climate and building variations and therefore more flexibility on how they meet the standard.  This approach will make ensuring compliance with the standards easier as there will be an independent third party assessment of the home. 

Within performance based standards there can be a staged approach. If there is a clear requirement to meet a home energy rating by a set date there can also be requirements along the way for certain features to be installed that assist the home in achieving the rating. This is important because it ensures that renters start to see improvements in comfort and affordability as the landlord works towards making the necessary changes to meet the home energy rating.

Minimum standards have been implemented successfully internationally for decades and more recently in other jurisdictions, including Victoria, the ACT, New Zealand, and the UK. The evidence shows there’s no adverse impacts on rental supply.

[If you have lived in other jurisdictions where they have minimum standards please consider sharing how your experience was different to current experience in NSW. eg “I lived in the UK and my rental home was much easier to keep at the right comfortable temperature in winter and summer and my energy bills were reasonable and didn't put me under financial strain. It was just considered normal in the UK for landlords to have to ensure their rental properties were at an appropriate standard and met certain requirements.”]

I strongly support the introduction of mandatory minimum energy efficiency standards in NSW. 

It will help renters like me to live in a more comfortable environment, reduce our energy bills and lower our environmental impact.

[Include how you think it will personally benefit you and your family e.g. My energy bills are the highest they have ever been. If my home was more energy efficient then I could run the air conditioner when it's really hot and not be stressed that I won't be able to afford my bill. My medical condition gets worse in summer when my home is unbearably hot. I have to take extra medication and spend time at the local shopping mall which has air conditioner as I cannot afford to run my air conditioner as the house is not insulated and doesn't stay cool.]

Below we’ve listed all of the questions that are outlined in the consultation paper, you can read through these and choose to respond to some, or none and just use our guide above. It’s completely up to you - the most important thing is that you share your story and thoughts about how minimum energy efficiency rental standards could help renters in NSW. 

Questions

• Question 1: What are the biggest issues that renters and landlords face in New South Wales regarding energy efficiency of rental homes? Are there any important issues not listed here that should be included? 
• Question 2: What information do renters currently have access to about the energy efficiency of a rental home before signing a lease, and how could this be improved?
• Question 3: Are some groups of renters disproportionately affected by poor energy efficiency (for example, low-income households, older people, people with disabilities , families with young children, or renters in regional and remote areas)? 
  • Please explain.
• Question 4: Would you like to share any experiences related to energy efficiency in rental homes with the team conducting this investigation?
  • Please feel free to share any experiences you’ve had as a renter, landlord, real estate agent, tradesperson or in any other relevant capacity.  
• Question 5 : Would you like to share any experiences you’ve had with minimum energy efficiency rental standards  in another jurisdiction where MEERS are already in place? 
  • Please feel free to share any experiences you’ve had as a renter, landlord, real estate or in any other relevant capacity. 
• Question 6 : What lessons from other jurisdictions would be most relevant to NSW if MEERS were introduced, particularly in relation to exemptions, lead in times, or support measures? 
• Question 7 : Are there any unintended consequences observed in other jurisdictions with MEERS (for example, impacts on rental supply or rents) that New South Wales should consider?
• Question 8 : If MEERS were introduced in New South Wales, what objectives should they have? Please list the objectives in order of priority. You can include the objectives listed in the potential objectives for minimum energy efficiency rental standards in New South Wales, or something else. 
• Question 9: What are likely to be the main benefits and impacts of introducing MEERS? 
• Question 10: Do you support the introduction of MEERS for rental homes in New South Wales ? Why or why not? 
• Question 11: If MEERS were introduced in New South Wales , what are likely to be the main challenges of introducing MEERS in houses? 
• Question 12: If MEERS were introduced in New South Wales , what are likely to be the main challenges of introducing MEERS in apartments and other types of strata developments? 
• Question 13: If MEERS were introduced in New South Wales , what are likely to be the main challenges and opportunities of introducing MEERS in social and community rental housing, affordable housing, boarding houses, build-to-rent housing, student accommodation, retirement villages and other rental accommodation ? 
• Question 14: If MEERS were introduced in New South Wales , do you think they should be applied consistently across New South Wales , or should they vary, for example by building type, climate zone or in some other way? 
  • For example, if MEERS requires ceiling insulation: should the insulation requirements in hot, humid climate zones such as the far North Coast be the same as in cooler climate zones such as the Monaro or the Southern Highlands? 
• Question 15: If MEERS were introduced in New South Wales , how could potential impacts on rents be minimised to ensure renters are better off overall, including both rental and energy costs? 
• Question 16: Please indicate if you think there should be variations in how MEERS applies to certain home types, and if so, how and why. 
  • For guidance, please think about the following home types : 
    • Apartments • Houses and ‘granny flats’ 
    • Townhouses and villas
    • Affordable housing • Boarding houses
    • Build-to-rent housing
    • Key worker accommodation
    • Seniors rental accommodation (e.g. , retirement villages )
    • Short-term rentals (e.g., Airbnb , Stayz ) 
    • Social and community housing 
    • Student accommodation 
    • Sub-market housing (e.g., crisis accommodation) 
• Question 17: If MEERS were introduced, what are likely to be the major challenges for landlords to implement and comply with MEERS, and how could these challenges be minimised? 
• Question 18: If MEERS were introduced, what are likely to be the major challenges for real estate agents to implement and comply with MEERS , and how could these challenges be minimised? 
• Question 19: If MEERS were introduced, how might they change behaviour in the rental market – for example, in property maintenance, upgrades or lease negotiations?
• Question 20: If MEERS were introduced: 
  • How should they interact with existing rental minimum standards in New South Wales?  
  • In your view, should energy efficiency requirements be considered as part of broader rental minimum standards over time, or remain a distinct set of requirements? 
    • Please explain why. 
• Question 21: What would be a fair and effective approach to compliance monitoring for MEERS, if they were introduced? 
• Question 22: What role should education and support play compared with enforcement, particularly during any transition period?  
• Question 23 : Which of the potential implementation models do you think would be most effective, practical and workable? 
  • Please also explain why. 
    • Option 1: Features approach 
    • Option  2: Home Energy Rating (NatHERS) approach 
    • Option 3: Multiple pathways 
• Question 24 : Do you have any comments on the advantages and disadvantages for each model? Are there any additional advantages or disadvantages that should be considered?
• Question 25 : Are there any other alternatives or hybrid implementation models that would help to achieve the objectives listed in the potential objectives for minimum energy efficiency standards in New South Wales?
• Question 26 : What types of support (financial, technical or regulatory) would most assist landlords, property managers and renters to improve the energy efficiency of their rental properties? 
• Question 27: Are there any policy alternatives that you believe the NSW Government should consider on top of, or instead of, MEERS that would achieve the same objectives as those proposed in the potential objectives for minimum energy efficiency rental standards in New South Wales?