Part 1Preliminary

Part 1—Preliminary 1—Short title This Act may be cited as the Residential Tenancies Act 1995. 3—Interpretation (1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears— abuse and act of abuse have the same meaning as in the Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) Act 2009; ancillary property means property (not forming part of premises subject to a residential tenancy agreement) that is provided by the landlord, either under the residential tenancy agreement or independently of the agreement, for use by the tenant; bailiff means a bailiff appointed under the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013; bond means an amount a tenant is required to pay under a residential tenancy agreement, or an agreement collateral to a residential tenancy agreement, as security for the performance of obligations under a residential tenancy agreement; collateral agreement, in relation to a residential tenancy agreement for residential premises in a prescribed retirement village, includes a domestic services agreement that a tenant of the premises is required to enter into as a condition of the residential tenancy agreement or otherwise as a condition of admission as a resident of the village; Commissioner means the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs; controlled drug has the same meaning as in the Controlled Substances Act 1984; co‑tenant means a tenant who is 1 of 2 or more tenants under a residential tenancy agreement; decision, of the Tribunal, has the same meaning as in the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013; Deputy President means a Deputy President of the Tribunal appointed under the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013; Deputy Registrar means a Deputy Registrar of the Tribunal appointed under the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013; domestic abuse means an act of abuse committed by a person against a domestic associate or a former domestic associate of the person; domestic associate—2 persons are domestic associates, 1 of the other, if— (a) they are married to each other; or (b) they are domestic partners; or (c) they are in some other form of intimate personal relationship in which their lives are interrelated and the actions of 1 affect the other; or (d) 1 is the child, stepchild or grandchild, or is under the guardianship, of the other (regardless of age); or (e) 1 is a child, stepchild or grandchild, or is under the guardianship, of a person who is or was formerly in a relationship with the other under paragraph (a), (b) or (c) (regardless of age); or (f) 1 is a child and the other is a person who acts in loco parentis in relation to the child; or (g) 1 is a child who normally or regularly resides or stays with the other; or (h) they are brothers or sisters or brother and sister; or (i) they are otherwise related to each other by or through blood, marriage, a domestic partnership or adoption; or (j) they are related according to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kinship rules or are both members of some other culturally recognised family group; or (k) 1 is the carer (within the meaning of the Carers Recognition Act 2005) of the other; domestic facility requiring instructions means an appliance or device provided by a landlord for the use of a tenant for which it would be reasonable to expect the tenant to require instructions; domestic partner means a person who is a domestic partner within the meaning of the Family Relationships Act 1975, whether declared as such under that Act or not; domestic services agreement means an agreement with a tenant of residential premises in a prescribed retirement village for the provision of domestic services (such as meals, cleaning, gardening and laundry of linen); drug related conduct means conduct of a kind prescribed by the regulations in relation to a controlled drug; exempt animal means— (a) an assistance animal within the meaning of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984; or (b) a therapeutic animal within the meaning of section 88A of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984; Fund means the Residential Tenancies Fund; housing assessment order has the same meaning as in the Housing Improvement Act 2016; housing demolition order has the same meaning as in the Housing Improvement Act 2016; housing improvement order has the same meaning as in the Housing Improvement Act 2016; intervention order means an intervention order issued by a court under the Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) Act 2009; landlord means— (a) the person who grants the right of occupancy under a residential tenancy agreement; or (b) a successor in title to the tenanted premises whose title is subject to the tenant's interest, and includes a prospective landlord and a former landlord; lawyer means a person entitled to practise the profession of the law under the Legal Practitioners Act 1981; notice to vacate has the same meaning as in the Housing Improvement Act 2016; personal documents means official documents, photographs, correspondence or other documents that it would be reasonable to expect a person might wish to keep; preliminary rent control notice has the same meaning as in the Housing Improvement Act 2016; premises includes a part of premises; prescribed retirement village means a complex of residential premises or a number of separate complexes of residential premises that would be a retirement village within the meaning of the Retirement Villages Act 2016 except that no resident or prospective resident of the village pays an ingoing contribution (within the meaning of that Act) in consideration for, or in contemplation of, admission as a resident of the village; President means the President of the Tribunal appointed under the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013; registered community housing provider means a community housing provider registered under the Community Housing Providers National Law; Registrar means the Registrar of the Tribunal appointed under the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013; rent consists of— (a) the amount payable under a residential tenancy agreement for the right to occupy premises for a period of the tenancy; and (b) if the residential tenancy agreement is for residential premises in a prescribed retirement village and there is a domestic services agreement collateral to the residential tenancy agreement—the amount payable under the domestic services agreement for the period of the tenancy referred to in paragraph (a); rent control notice means a notice under Part 3 Division 3 of the Housing Improvement Act 2016 fixing the maximum rent payable for premises; residential premises means premises for occupation as a place of residence; residential tenancy agreement means an agreement (other than a rooming house agreement) under which a person grants another person, for valuable consideration, a right (which may, but need not, be an exclusive right1) to occupy premises for the purpose of residence; An agreement under which a person grants another person, for valuable consideration, a right to occupy for residential purposes a building on land (such as a studio or "granny flat") that is located adjacent to or near the primary residence on the land and which the other person has exclusive access to, and possession of, is a residential tenancy agreement. rooming house means residential premises in which 2 or more rooms are available, for valuable consideration, for residential occupation; rooming house agreement means an agreement under which accommodation is provided (with or without meals, or other facilities or services) in a rooming house; rooming house proprietor means a person who carries on a business involving the provision of accommodation under rooming house agreements; rooming house resident means a person who boards or lodges in a rooming house; statutory charges means— (a) rates or charges imposed under the Local Government Act 1999; and (b) rates or charges imposed under the Water Industry Act 2012; and (c) land tax under the Land Tax Act 1936; and (d) levies under the Emergency Services Funding Act 1998; and (e) levies under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019; and (f) any charges of a kind imposed under an Act and declared by regulation to be statutory charges; tenancy dispute means— (a) a claim under a residential tenancy agreement, a rooming house agreement, or an agreement collateral to a residential tenancy agreement or a rooming house agreement; or (b) a dispute between parties or former parties to a residential tenancy agreement, a rooming house agreement, or an agreement collateral to a residential tenancy agreement or a rooming house agreement, about matters arising under the agreement or this Act; or (c) any matter that may be the subject of an application under this Act to the Tribunal; tenant means the person who is granted a right of occupancy under a residential tenancy agreement or a person to whom the right passes by assignment or operation of law and includes a prospective tenant or a former tenant; Tribunal means the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal established under the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013. (2) If this Act provides for something to be done within a specified period from a particular day, the period will be taken not to include the particular day. (3) If this Act provides that action may be taken after the expiration of a specified period of days, the period will be taken to be a period of clear days. (3a) A receipt required to be given under this Act may be in paper or electronic form. (4) For the purposes of this Act, a residential tenancy agreement includes an agreement granting a corporation the right to occupy premises that are occupied, or that are intended to be occupied, as a place of residence by a natural person. (5) For the purposes of this Act— (a) a reference to a rooming house is taken to include a reference to a designated rooming house (within the meaning of Part 7 Division 1A); and (b) a reference to a rooming house agreement is taken to include a designated rooming house agreement (within the meaning of Part 7 Division 1A); and (c) a reference to a rooming house proprietor is taken to include a reference to a designated rooming house proprietor (within the meaning of Part 7 Division 1A). 1 However, it should be noted that the Act confers certain protections against intrusion on the premises by the landlord. Hence, even if the agreement does not, in its terms, confer an exclusive right to occupation, the Act will (at least in some respects) assimilate the right of occupation to the exclusive right conferred by a lease. 4—Presumption of periodicity in case of short fixed terms (1) If a residential tenancy agreement is entered into for a short fixed term, the agreement is taken to be an agreement for a periodic tenancy with a period equivalent to the length of the fixed term unless the landlord establishes that— (a) the tenant genuinely wanted a tenancy ending at the end of the short fixed term and the term was fixed at the tenant's request; or (b) before the residential tenancy agreement was entered into— (i) the landlord gave the tenant a notice containing a warning in the form required by regulation; and (ii) the tenant signed a statement in the form required by regulation acknowledging that the tenant did not expect to continue in possession of the premises after the end of the term stated in the agreement. (2) A short fixed term is a term of 90 days or less. 5—Application of Act (1) This Act does not apply to— (a) an agreement giving a right of occupancy in— (i) a hotel or motel; or (ii) an educational institution, college, hospital or nursing home; or An agreement under which a right of occupancy is given to a student in accommodation provided within an educational institution or college would not be an agreement to which this Act applies (but this Act would apply, subject to this Act, to an agreement under which a right of occupancy is given to a student in accommodation that is not within an educational institution or college). (iii) club premises; or (iv) a home for aged or disabled persons administered by an eligible organisation under the Aged or Disabled Persons Care Act 1954 of the Commonwealth; or (v) a retirement village within the meaning of the Retirement Villages Act 2016 (other than an agreement of a kind referred to in section 57 of that Act); or (vi) a supported residential facility within the meaning of the Supported Residential Facilities Act 1992; or (vii) prescribed premises, or premises of a prescribed class; or (ab) an agreement to which the Residential Parks Act 2007 applies; or (b) an agreement (other than a rooming house agreement) under which a person boards or lodges with another; or (c) an agreement genuinely entered into for the purpose of conferring on a person a right to occupy premises for a holiday; or (d) an agreement conferring a right to occupy premises for the purpose of residence but under which no rent is payable; or An agreement under which families exchange houses for an agreed period would not be a residential tenancy agreement if no rent were payable under the agreement. (e) an agreement for the sale of land that confers a right to occupy premises for a period of 28 days or less on a party to the agreement; or (f) a mortgage; or (g) an agreement arising under a scheme in which— (i) a complex of adjacent premises is owned by a company; and (ii) the premises are let by the company to persons who jointly have a controlling interest in the company; or (h) a prescribed agreement or an agreement of a prescribed class. (1a) The regulations may exclude prescribed classes of agreements that relate to land owned (wholly or in part) by the South Australian Housing Trust, or by a subsidiary of the South Australian Housing Trust, from the operation of subsection (1)(e). (1b) For the purposes of this Act, an agreement conferring a right to occupy premises for a fixed term of 60 days or longer is to be taken, in the absence of proof to the contrary, not to be an agreement referred to in subsection (1)(c). (1c) For the purposes of this Act, a residential tenancy agreement for residential premises in a prescribed retirement village is to be taken not to be an agreement under which a person boards or lodges with another. (2) The following provisions of this Act (and only those provisions) apply to residential tenancy agreements under which the South Australian Housing Trust or a subsidiary of the South Australian Housing Trust is the landlord, to residential tenancies arising under those agreements and to related disputes— (a) Part 3 (South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal); (ab) Section 65 (Quiet enjoyment); (b) Section 66 (Security of premises); (ba) Section 67B (Testing and remediation in relation to drug contamination); (c) Section 71 (Tenant's conduct); (caa) Section 80A (Termination by landlord on ground of drug contamination); (ca) Section 87 (Termination on application by landlord); (cb) Section 89A (Termination based on domestic abuse); (d) Section 90 (Tribunal may terminate tenancy where tenant's conduct unacceptable); (e) Section 93 (Order for possession); (f) Section 99 (Enforcement orders for possession); (g) Division 3 of Part 8 (Powers of the tribunal); (h) Division 4 of Part 8 (Representation).