Tasmania will be the first state or territory to have legislated minimum standards for residential tenancies, following the successful passage of the Residential Tenancy Amendment Bill through the Upper House last Thursday.

The proposed minimum standards listed below got through unscathed but not without much discussion and some dissent. The standards require a tenancy to be:

• Weatherproof and structurally sound
• Clean and in good repair
• Equipped with bathroom and toilet
• Serviced with a kitchen sink, hotplates and an oven (which can be a microwave)
• Supplied with electricity and one fixed form of heating
• Provided with curtains (except properties owned by Housing Tasmania)
• Adequately ventilated

see the latest Rent Rant, our Newsletter, for more.