WA Rental Law Changes 2024–2026: What Property Managers Need to Know and Do Now

Western Australia's residential tenancy landscape has changed substantially since 2024. The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2024 introduced reforms in three distinct phases, and the cumulative effect is that the rules governing how you manage properties, handle rent reviews, respond to pet requests, and deal with bond disputes are materially different from what they were before May 2024.

For property managers in WA, this is not legislation to file and forget. Each phase has practical compliance obligations — around what you can ask tenants to pay, what you must consider when a tenant wants to keep a pet, and how end-of-tenancy disputes are now resolved. A fourth change — a ban on no-grounds evictions — was announced by Premier Roger Cook in May 2026 but is not yet law.

This guide works through the reforms in the order they took effect, focusing on what each change requires you to do differently. It is written as a practical compliance guide, not legal advice. For complex or borderline situations, contact Consumer Protection WA at consumerprotection.wa.gov.au, or consult a legal practitioner familiar with the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA).

All references are to the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA) as amended by the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2024, with guidance current as of June 2026.

The first phase of reforms took effect on 16 May 2024. Two significant changes came into force on that date.

Rent bidding is now prohibited. Under the amended Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA), landlords and property managers cannot solicit, invite, or accept rent above the advertised price for residential premises. Properties must be advertised at a fixed rental price — not a price range. The prohibition means that even if a prospective tenant volunteers to pay more than the listed rent to secure a property in a competitive market, you cannot accept that offer. Accepting above-advertised rent, whether actively solicited or passively accepted, breaches the legislation. The penalty for breach is a fine of up to $10,000.

Practically, this means rental appraisals and advertised prices must be set at the amount you actually intend to charge. If a property is listed at $600 per week, no arrangement — formal or informal — should result in the tenant paying more. Review your listing templates and application workflows to ensure no instruction or implied invitation to offer above the listed rent appears anywhere in your process.

Retaliatory action against tenants is also prohibited from 16 May 2024. This reform prevents landlords and agents from taking adverse action — such as issuing a Notice to Vacate, refusing to renew a lease, or substantially increasing rent — in response to a tenant exercising their legal rights. If a tenant makes a legitimate complaint about the condition of a property, requests a repair, or contacts Consumer Protection WA, any subsequent adverse action by the landlord or agent may be scrutinised as retaliatory.

The retaliatory action prohibition introduces a practical documentation obligation. When a Notice to Vacate or a rent increase follows closely after a tenant complaint or a request for repair, you need a clear documented basis for that action that is independent of the tenant's conduct. Contemporaneous records of property decisions — and the reasons behind them — become more important as a protection against claims of retaliation.

The most widely discussed change in Phase 2 is the restriction on rent increase frequency. From 29 July 2024, rent for a residential tenancy in Western Australia can only be increased once in any 12-month period. This restriction applies to both periodic tenancies (those with no fixed end date) and fixed-term tenancies — but the application to fixed-term agreements depends on when they were signed.

For periodic tenancies: from 29 July 2024 onwards, rent can only be increased once every 12 months, regardless of when the tenancy started.

For fixed-term tenancies: the 12-month restriction applies to fixed-term agreements signed on or after 29 July 2024. Fixed-term agreements signed before that date, where the agreement specified the rent applicable for each period, continue under the terms of the original agreement.

What this means in practice: if you increased rent for a periodic tenant on 1 August 2024, the next increase cannot take effect until at least 1 August 2025. If a new fixed-term lease was signed on 1 September 2024 with a single rent for the term, a further increase can only be applied when the tenancy converts to periodic or a new fixed-term agreement is entered — and any increase at that point is subject to the 12-month rule from the date of the last increase.

The frequency restriction is separate from the notice required to issue a rent increase. The Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA) requires written notice of a rent increase to be given before the increase takes effect. Property managers should ensure rent increase notices remain compliant with notice period requirements under the Act and are issued in writing.

For agencies managing large portfolios with frequent rent review cycles, the 12-month restriction changes the workflow. Build the last rent increase date into your property management system for every property so that inadvertent early increases are caught before notices go out.

Two further changes came into effect on 29 July 2024 alongside the rent increase restriction.

Pet rights for tenants. From 29 July 2024, tenants in WA have a formal right to request to keep a pet in a rented property. Before this change, pet ownership in rental properties was effectively at the landlord's discretion and was routinely refused. Under the new framework, tenants submit a written pet request to the landlord or agent, and the landlord may only refuse on prescribed grounds. Refusing a pet request without a valid prescribed ground is a breach of the Act.

The prescribed grounds for refusing a pet request include circumstances such as the premises being unsuitable for the type of animal requested, the pet posing an unacceptable risk to health and safety, the pet causing undue hardship to the landlord or another tenant, and the pet being a dangerous dog under the Dog Act 1976 (WA). A landlord cannot refuse simply because they dislike pets or have a blanket 'no pets' clause in the lease — such a refusal without a valid prescribed ground is a breach of the Act. Landlords must also respond within 14 days of receiving a pet request: if they do not respond and do not apply to the Commissioner within that period, the request is automatically approved.

For property managers, this change means that a pet refusal must now be a substantiated decision, not a default. When a tenant submits a pet request, document the basis for any refusal carefully and ensure it aligns with a prescribed ground. Blanket refusals on lease terms alone — without a valid prescribed ground — will not hold up if challenged. Consumer Protection WA provides guidance on the prescribed grounds at consumerprotection.wa.gov.au.

Note that a pet bond remains available in WA for specific types of animals, up to a maximum permitted under the Act. The pet bond is held by the Bond Administrator alongside the regular security bond and is subject to the same bond management rules.

Minor modifications. Alongside pet rights, Phase 2 introduced a framework for tenants to request minor modifications to the property — such as installing picture hooks, a portable clothesline, or childproofing measures. As with pets, landlords can only refuse on prescribed grounds. Property managers receiving modification requests should apply the same documented approach: assess whether any prescribed ground for refusal applies, and respond in writing. Modifications approved must be reversed at the end of the tenancy unless the landlord agrees otherwise in writing.

Phase 2 also introduced a simplified dispute resolution pathway through the Commissioner for Consumer Protection. Before this change, many tenancy disputes in WA that could not be resolved between the parties required an application to the Magistrates Court — a formal, costly, and time-consuming process.

From 29 July 2024, the Commissioner for Consumer Protection has authority to hear and determine certain categories of minor tenancy disputes, providing a faster and less formal alternative. This pathway is available for disputes about issues such as minor repairs not being carried out, tenancy modification requests being improperly refused, pet requests being improperly refused, and similar matters.

For property managers, this means that disputes arising from refused pet requests, refused modification requests, or delays in minor repairs can be escalated by tenants to the Commissioner rather than to a court. The Commissioner can make determinations that are binding on the parties. This creates a compliance incentive: a well-documented refusal on valid prescribed grounds is far easier to defend in a Commissioner proceeding than an undocumented or blanket refusal.

Phase 3, which took effect in March 2026, significantly extended the Commissioner's role to include bond disputes — a change covered in the next section.

The most operationally significant change for property managers in 2026 is the overhaul of the bond release process under Phase 3, which commenced on 28 March 2026. This change fundamentally alters what happens when a bond is disputed at the end of a tenancy.

Before 28 March 2026, when the parties to a tenancy could not agree on how the bond should be distributed, the matter went directly to the Magistrates Court. This was expensive, slow, and formal — requiring a court filing, a hearing date, and attendance by both parties or their representatives. WA was an outlier in this respect: most other Australian states route bond disputes through a dedicated civil tribunal or administrative process.

From 28 March 2026, when a bond release application is disputed, Bonds Administration refers the matter to the Determinations Branch — a team of authorised delegates of the Commissioner for Consumer Protection — who review evidence from both parties and make a binding decision about how the bond should be distributed.

How the process works now: Any party — tenant, landlord, or agent — can initiate a bond release application. For agents, BondsOnline is the required channel. When a bond release application is submitted through BondsOnline, the system automatically sends an eTransaction notification to all other parties. If a recipient disputes the application, Bonds Administration refers the matter to the Determinations Branch. All parties then receive formal notification and instructions for submitting evidence. Submit your evidence only once you receive that formal referral notification — not before.

Evidence relevant to a bond claim includes the ingoing property condition report (including the tenant's mark-up of items they disagreed with at entry), the outgoing property condition report, timestamped photographs taken at both entry and exit, invoices or quotes for each claimed item, and any relevant written correspondence. The Commissioner's Determinations Branch reviews all evidence and issues a binding decision. The bond is held for seven days after the decision to allow either party to appeal to the Magistrates Court. If no appeal is lodged within seven days, the bond is paid out according to the decision.

The Commissioner determination process is available at no cost where all parties to the tenancy reside in Western Australia. If any party lives outside WA — for example, a landlord who has moved interstate — the matter proceeds directly to the Magistrates Court. Parties who lodge an appeal against a Commissioner decision also proceed to the Magistrates Court within the seven-day window.

For property managers, this change has two practical implications. First, the forum for most bond disputes is now faster and less expensive — a result that benefits both parties. Second, the evidence requirements are essentially the same as they were for the Magistrates Court: thorough, timestamped condition reports with clear photographic documentation remain the foundation of a successful bond claim. The quality of your condition report documentation determines the outcome, regardless of whether the decision-maker is a magistrate or the Commissioner's Determinations Branch.

On 4 May 2026, Premier Roger Cook announced that the WA Government intends to ban no-grounds evictions — a significant reform that will require landlords to provide a prescribed reason for ending a tenancy. As of June 2026, this change has not yet been enacted into law. It is a policy announcement, and legislation to implement it has not yet passed the WA Parliament.

Under the current Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA), landlords can issue a Notice to Vacate at the end of a fixed-term tenancy or during a periodic tenancy without stating a specific reason — this is the "no grounds" termination. The proposed reform would eliminate that option, replacing it with a requirement that every Notice to Vacate cite a valid, prescribed reason.

The prescribed reasons that would remain available under the proposed reforms include grounds such as significant renovations requiring vacant possession, sale of the property requiring vacant possession, the landlord or a family member intending to occupy the property, and a tenant breach that justifies termination. The announcement did not confirm the full list of allowable grounds, and the detail will emerge when draft legislation is published.

The response from industry stakeholders has been mixed. REIWA President Suzanne Brown raised concerns that the change could reduce rental supply by making it harder for landlords to regain possession of their properties, potentially encouraging some landlords to exit the rental market. Advocates including Anglicare WA have argued that the evidence does not support the claim that banning no-grounds evictions materially reduces rental supply, pointing to other jurisdictions where similar reforms have been implemented.

NSW and Victoria have already enacted no-grounds eviction bans. See our Victorian rental law changes guide for how Victoria's reform has worked in practice.

For property managers in WA, the practical implication of the proposed change — when and if it becomes law — is that every Notice to Vacate will need to state a valid statutory ground and, for some grounds, include supporting evidence. Blanket end-of-term notices will no longer be possible. Monitor communications from Consumer Protection WA and REIWA for updates on the legislation's progress and any transition provisions that apply to notices issued during the period before and after the change takes effect.

Several of the reforms that have taken effect since May 2024 interact directly with condition report practice in ways that are worth understanding as a connected system.

The bond process reform makes entry-to-exit condition report quality more important than ever. Under the Commissioner determination process introduced in Phase 3, the quality of your documentation directly determines the outcome. When both parties submit evidence to the Determinations Branch, the Commissioner applies the same principles that applied in the Magistrates Court: an ingoing condition report that clearly records the property's state at the start of the tenancy, and an outgoing report that clearly shows how condition changed, is the foundation of a sustainable bond claim. An ingoing report with vague descriptions and no photographs creates uncertainty that tends to resolve against the landlord.

The proposed no-grounds eviction ban will increase the importance of fault-based termination evidence. When the reform takes effect, notices to vacate without a valid ground will be invalid. If a landlord needs to end a tenancy for a reason related to the tenant's conduct — such as significant damage to the property — the condition report documentation becomes the evidentiary basis for the breach. A thorough routine inspection record that documents how condition deteriorated during the tenancy is essential to support a breach-based notice and to succeed if the tenant challenges it through the Commissioner's dispute resolution process.

The retaliatory action prohibition from Phase 1 also touches condition reports indirectly. If a tenant makes a complaint about the state of the property and subsequently receives a notice to vacate or a significant rent increase, the landlord's position is significantly stronger if there is a documented, contemporaneous basis for that action — a condition issue identified at a routine inspection, a legitimate rent review, or another independent ground. Condition reports and routine inspection records that are complete, dated, and independent of tenant conduct provide that documented basis.

Finally, the pet rights framework from Phase 2 has an end-of-tenancy implication: if a pet bond was collected and the property sustained pet-specific damage, the documentation of that damage at exit needs to be specific to the pet-related items. An exit condition report that distinguishes pet-related damage from general wear is essential for a defensible pet bond claim.

If you have not reviewed your processes since May 2024, here is a structured action list organised by the change and what it requires.

For the rent bidding prohibition: Audit every listing template and application workflow to confirm no language — explicit or implied — invites prospective tenants to offer above the listed price. Train staff on the prohibition and the $10,000 penalty for breach. Set rental prices as a fixed amount, not a range.

For the retaliatory action prohibition: Establish a habit of documenting the decision-making process for Notices to Vacate and rent increases independently of any tenant complaints or repair requests that preceded them. Where a rent increase or notice follows a tenant complaint, ensure the basis for the action is separately recorded before issuing it.

For rent increase frequency: Add the date of the last rent increase to every tenancy record in your property management system. Build a check into your rent review process to confirm that at least 12 months has elapsed since the last increase for that tenancy. Flag periodic tenancies that were subject to increases before 29 July 2024 and verify that any increases since that date comply with the new restriction.

For pet requests: Establish a documented pet request process. When a tenant submits a pet request, record the date received, assess it against the prescribed grounds for refusal, and respond in writing with a clear decision and the reason for it. Do not rely on blanket lease clauses to refuse pets without going through this assessment. If you are unsure whether a refusal ground applies, contact Consumer Protection WA before refusing.

For minor modifications: Apply the same documented approach. Record the modification requested, assess it against prescribed refusal grounds, and respond in writing. Where modifications are approved, note in the tenancy file what was approved so the exit inspection can assess whether the modification was reversed appropriately.

For bond disputes under Phase 3: Update your end-of-tenancy workflow to reflect the new Commissioner determination process. Ensure BondsOnline is set up and agents know it is the required channel. Do not submit evidence before receiving formal notification of referral to the Determinations Branch. Complete the exit condition report on the day of vacancy — not days later — so that evidence is contemporaneous.

For the proposed no-grounds eviction ban: Monitor Consumer Protection WA and REIWA communications for the legislation's progress. When draft legislation is published, review your Notice to Vacate templates to ensure they will accommodate the required grounds and any supporting evidence. Do not assume current no-grounds notices remain valid once the ban takes effect.

The reforms that have taken effect since 2024 share a common theme: documentation quality matters more than it did before. Under the Commissioner determination process, every piece of evidence submitted is weighed directly against what the other party submits. Under the proposed no-grounds eviction ban, fault-based terminations will need evidentiary support from condition reports and routine inspection records. Under the pet rights and minor modifications frameworks, end-of-tenancy disputes about pet or modification damage require specific documentation.

ConditionHQ generates property condition reports that meet Western Australian requirements under the Residential Tenancies Act 1987. The report format covers all rooms and areas with structured photo documentation — each photograph is timestamped and attached to the specific room item it describes, rather than aggregated into a general photo dump.

For the Phase 3 bond process specifically, ConditionHQ's entry-to-exit comparison makes it straightforward to show the Commissioner's Determinations Branch exactly how condition changed between the start and end of the tenancy. When the entry and exit reports are both generated in the same structured format, the differences are immediately apparent and the evidence is clear. A comparison where the entry report is a handwritten form and the exit report is a PDF from a different system is harder to present — and harder to interpret — than a consistent, side-by-side comparison generated from the same tool.

For property managers building a WA practice that is compliant with the 2024 reforms and prepared for the proposed no-grounds eviction changes, ConditionHQ offers a free tier with three full reports per month — enough to evaluate whether the format works for your properties before committing to a subscription. The Pro plan ($59 per month) and Agency plan ($149 per month) provide unlimited reports and the full entry-to-exit comparison toolkit.

For state-specific condition report requirements under the current WA legislation, see our WA bond and condition report rules guide.