About 30 people attended a Real Estate Institute of NSW information session at Atura Albury this week to learn more about changes to the Residential Tenancies Act passed in October but yet to take effect.

The reforms allow tenants needing to escape a violent partner to terminate their tenancy immediately and without penalty. Tenants who are not the perpetrator will not be held accountable for property damage that occurred during a domestic violence incident.

Arthur G Colquhoun & Co property manager Sherryn Orr said those at the Albury workshop expressed mixed views about the amendments.

“You want to do what you can to protect the victim, of course, but at the same time you want to do what you can to protect the owner’s asset and the repair of that asset,” she said.

“It was a very grey area, we’re not quite sure how it’s going to go.”

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Institute chief executive Tim McKibbin said anybody facing harm should be able to remove themselves from this situation, but such actions incurred costs.

“The question is who should pay for it, who should be responsible for the costs attaching to this person’s circumstances,” he said.

“The government has decided the person bearing the cost is to be the landlord, in my view that is unfair.” 

Other amendments to the act include setting seven minimum standards rental properties must reach at the start of a tenancy and limiting rent increases to once every 12 months for periodic leases.

Mandatory set fees for breaking a fixed term lease early will range from four weeks to one week’s rent, depending on how much of the lease is left.

Ms Orr said the changes would add to a property manager’s duties but “it’s making things a lot fairer and a lot safer, I think, on both parts in different scenarios”.