60Home improvements

60  Home improvements

 (1) Housing Australia must not impose terms and conditions on an arrangement that would prevent a participant from making improvements to the relevant property at their own expense.

 (2) To ensure that the Commonwealth does not benefit from any part of the increase in the property’s value resulting from the improvements, Housing Australia must, under the arrangement:

 (a) reduce the Commonwealth share percentage; and

 (b) make any necessary amendments to the arrangement, or contracts or agreements relating to the arrangement;

where:

 (c) the participant gives notice to Housing Australia of the proposed improvements in the form approved by Housing Australia; and

 (d) the improvements cost $20,000 or more (as indexed in accordance with section 55); and

 (e) the participant obtained any approvals required under the law of the relevant jurisdiction before commencing the improvements; and

 (f) the property is valued before and after the improvements are carried out to ascertain their impact on its value (disregarding the impact of other factors such as market movements, repairs or maintenance).

Note: If the cost of the improvements is less than $20,000, the Commonwealth will share in any resultant increase in value.

 (3) For the purposes of subsection (2), a continuous series of separate improvements carried out over a period of up to 12 months is to be treated as one set of improvements.