Accommodation providers toolkit

If you provide accommodation services you should think about what criteria you want met by a prospective tenant. These should focus on factors like ability to pay the rental price, ability to keep your property in good order, ability to abide by general tenancy conditions like not disturbing neighbours and acting responsibly when issues arise.

You can:

• Ask for pay slips, Centrelink or bank account statements.
• Ask for references from previous landlords, real estate agents or neighbours.
• Decide to not allow pets on the property. However, guide dogs and other assistance animals must be allowed.
• If there are children or pets you could ask for references from neighbours about how they are behaved. You could ask referees questions like: Does the dog bark often? Was there any damage to the property that you are aware of caused by the children/ dog?
• Inspect properties.
• Expect that a property will be maintained to an agreed standard, no matter who the tenants are.

Don’t forget to:

• Process all applications for a property in the same way using the same criteria.
• Put policies and procedures in place to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination from occurring
• Make sure any staff you employ to rent out your property and prospective tenants are aware of these policies and procedures
• Check all advertisements carefully to ensure they do not indicate any intention to discriminate

What you can't do:

• You can't refuse to rent out a property to someone, change the terms on which the property is offered, or process an application differently from other applications because of a person’s:
  • age
  • association with a child
  • caring responsibilities
  • chosen gender
  • disability
  • marital or domestic partnership status
  • pregnancy
  • race
  • sex
  • sexuality
  • spouse or partner's identity.
• Avoid asking applicants questions about these personal characteristics unless strictly necessary
• Facilities on the premises, such as a pool, must be made available to all tenants regardless of their race, age, sex, disability etc. Tenants with disabilities are allowed to make reasonable alterations to the property to enable access.
• Refrain from touching or making advances towards tenants.
• Refrain from talking to a tenant about personal matters such as their sex life.
• If you are acting on behalf of a landlord, avoid following instructions which may be discriminatory. You could both be held liable for any discrimination that occurs.