Submission: Protection of Personal Information Bill

The Tenants’ Union welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Inquiry into the Residential Tenancies Amendment (Protection of Personal Information) Bill 2025 (the Bill). We understand that the Inquiry is particularly focused on looking at possible unintended effects of the proposed legislation on pet owners. 

The current pet application process in the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 provides no avenue for a renter who has a pet and is applying for a property to seek consent for the pet without the risk of discrimination in the process of applying for a home. 

The current pet application process in NSW is based on the assumption that a renter will not have a pet at the time they move into a new rental home. We know that this is not the case and currently these renters are in a very difficult position. The provisions in this Bill are attempting to work around this gap. 

Ultimately the solution to many of the concerns relating to pets raised during the progress of the Bill in the Legislative Council requires amending the current process of applying for a home. No jurisdiction in Australia has addressed this part of making renting with pets fairer, and this gap creates problems for renters and industry stakeholders. Ensuring that moving with a pet creates no disadvantage to finding a safe, affordable and appropriate home should be an aim for the NSW government. 

This Inquiry is attempting to resolve the issues caused by the absence of reform to the application process. While there will inevitably remain unresolved issues, there are signifi cant improvements we can make. Implementing in NSW the standard pet application process set in the majority of Australian jurisdictions would ensure that an unreasonable refusal by the landlord is prevented in the first instance. Placing the onus onto the landlord to seek an order from the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) if they wish to prohibit pets in their premises is a key way to remove unintended effects of this Bill on pet owners. Renters who don't currently have a pet have also raised there are barriers in the requirement to seek consent for a specific pet rather than seeking consent to have a particular type of pet for example a cat or a small dog. We recommend that the NSW Government do further work looking at the pet application process that commenced in May 2025 to ensure its fit for purpose. 

In the meantime we need to provide an avenue for renters moving into a premises with a pet to have a mechanism to seek consent while at the same time not requiring disclosure at the point of application. 

We recommend the Bill extend the current proposed 7 day grace period, introduce additional mandatory disclosures at the point of advertising, allow a renter to end their tenancy without penalty if consent for their pet is refused by the landlord and introduce penalties for landlords or Agents that provide misleading information to renters on the application process. These amendments to the Bill would reduce renters moving into premises where there are genuine reasonable grounds for a landlord's refusal under NSW’s current pet application process. They will also provide an avenue for a renter to vacate the premises where consent is refused and not be placed into financial hardship or have to rehome their pet/animal. 

In addition to strengthening the provisions in the Bill we strongly encourage further community education work to ensure that renters are aware of the reasonable grounds in the legislation that a landlord can refuse a pet application. It's important that this information is readily available before and during the application process and not just at the time of signing the lease agreement. 

Good data collection on pet applications and NCAT decisions under section 73G are crucial to enable a thorough assessment and review to understand how the pet application process is working in NSW. 

We understand the Inquiry’s focus is primarily on the pet provisions in the Bill but there are considerations we would like to bring to the attention of the Inquiry that relate to other aspects of the Bill. We have provided recommendations below which we believe will enhance the Bill and ensure that it meets its objectives. 

The Bill is also an opportunity to ensure better regulation of the advertising stage of the rental process. The Bill provides some regulation by requiring disclosure of exclusive supply networks and if digitally altered photos have been used in the advertising. We strongly recommend that this be expanded to require further disclosure to help a renter to get a better understanding of a property to decide if they should attend an inspection. Additional disclosure around accessibility of the property will be valuable information for prospective tenants.

Download submission