Saturday 3 September 2011

Landlords Have Unfair Advantage

Okay, the heading states the obvious but in WA the parliament is currently debating amendments to commercial tenancy agreements including the unfair advantage that landlords have over tenants.
Currently landlords hold all the cards as they require tenants to disclose turnover as part of leases, but there is no reciprocal obligation on landlords to disclose rental information including market details. Apparently one proposal is that valuers be allowed access to lease information.
The problem is that disclosing turnover is presently one way. If rents were tied to turnover (including lower rents for lower turnover) then we would see a much fairer playing field and you and I would be paying much lower rents.