Consumer Protection has undertaken a review of the laws which regulate long‑stay residential park tenancies in Western Australia.

• Status: Completed

Background

The purpose of this review is to assess the effectiveness of the operation of the Residential Parks (Long-stay Tenants) Act 2006 (RPLT Act). 

Current consultation phase:

Final report has been completed. The Decision Regulatory Impact Statement sets out recommendations based on an analysis of all stakeholder feedback and research undertaken by Consumer Protection since the review’s commencement in 2012.

The Government has endorsed the recommendations and approved the drafting of amendments to the RPLT Act.

Recommended changes

Full details of the recommendations are in the report, however, the main proposals include:

• improved disclosure, including a requirement that disclosure material be provided at least ten days before a long-stay agreement is entered into;
• no minimum term required for long-stay agreements;
• no without grounds termination of long-stay agreements;
• no variation of standard clauses in long-stay agreements;
• home owners to have the right to sell a home on site and processes to be established to ensure the park operators are involved in the sale process; and
• no automatic termination of long-stay agreements if a park operator’s financier takes possession of a park.

Previous consultation

The review has been undertaken in stages:

1. Statutory Review Report – released in December 2015 – this paper set out recommendations based on analysis of feedback received on the Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement. Stakeholders were given a final opportunity to comment on the recommendations before the Government made its final decision on them.
2. Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement – released in June 2014 – this paper proposed a number of options for reform of the RPLT Act. Feedback was requested from stakeholders in relation to the costs and benefits of each of those options and whether they would be viable. The recommendations in the statutory review report are based on the options that were put to stakeholders in the consultation regulatory impact statement.
3. Discussion paper – released in August 2012 – the purpose of the discussion paper was to identify the specific issues that stakeholders wanted to have considered during the review process.  

Downloads and resources

• Decision Regulatory Impact Statement (March 2017)
• Statutory Review Report (December 2015)
• Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement (June 2014).
• Discussion paper (August 2012)
• Information on current legislation can be found at State Law Publisher.

Submissions - Have your say

Opportunity for making a submission is now closed. 

Enquiries

Enquiries can be made by calling Consumer Protection's Advice Line on 1300 304 054 or by email.