The Gallop Government should undertake a major review of the residential tenancy legislation to address the issue of bad tenants in Western Australia because the current regulations discriminated against landlords and acted as a major disincentive for people to invest in real estate.

Bad tenants are a scourge of the real estate industry. There was now a hard core of bad tenants who were abusing the system and taking advantage of unsuspecting landlords.

The current tenancy legislation dates back to 1987 and over the last decade there has been a significant increase in mum and dad investors in the real estate mark who are easy prey to these bad tenants.

The current regulations governing residential tenancies are loaded in favour of the tenant and the judiciary reinforces this discrimination by being over lenient to bad tenants. Bad tenants can cause thousands of dollars damage to property and also owe huge rental debts before they can be eventually evicted.

Under current rules it can take several months to evict a bad tenant and occupy a huge amount of time on behalf of the landlord to regain possession of the property. At the end of the process, the tenant can move on to take advantage of another landlord and while the owner of the first property is left with huge financial losses.

In reality, the vast majority of landlords are decent people who are small investors using residential property as a means to fund their retirement. Landlords want good reliable tenants and eviction notices are only sought as a last resort for unacceptable tenants.

The real estate industry and landlords should now take a more active role in trying to lobby the government to reform current legislation so it makes it more easier for landlords to quickly evict bad tenants and more easily secure financial compensation for any damage or loss of rent.