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This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
South Australia
South Australian Housing Trust (Miscellaneous) Amendment
Bill 2011
A BILL FOR
An Act to amend the South
Australian Housing Trust Act 1995.
Contents
Part 1—Preliminary
1Short
title
2Amendment provisions
Part 2—Amendment of South Australian
Housing Trust Act 1995
3Insertion of
section 38A
38AAction on
imprisonment of tenant
4Substitution of
section 39
39Rents
5Insertion of section
39B
39BScheme to install
separate meters for all properties
6Insertion of sections 41A
and 41B
41AEviction of
tenant of SAHT on conviction for indictable
offence
41BEviction of tenant of SAHT on
certain other grounds
7Amendment of section 42A—Annual
report
Schedule 1—Related amendment and
transitional provision
Part 1—Amendment of
South Australian Co-operative and Community Housing
Act 1991
1Amendment of section 64—Financial
transactions
Part 2—Transitional
provision
2Transitional provision
The Parliament of South Australia enacts as
follows:
This Act may be cited as the South Australian Housing Trust
(Miscellaneous) Amendment Act 2011.
In this Act, a provision under a heading referring to the amendment of a
specified Act amends the Act so specified.
Part 2—Amendment
of South Australian Housing Trust
Act 1995
After section 38 insert:
38A—Action on imprisonment of
tenant
(1) If a tenant of SAHT is sentenced to imprisonment, and the sentence of
imprisonment is not wholly suspended, the tenant's lease is to be taken to be
cancelled and, if the house is vacant as a result of the cancellation, SAHT may,
subject to
subsection (2), let
the house to another person.
(2) If the lease of a
tenant sentenced to imprisonment is cancelled, before letting the house to
another person, SAHT must make reasonable efforts to offer to let the house to
any person who—
(a) is a dependant of the tenant; and
(b) was living at the house immediately before the sentencing;
and
(c) satisfies relevant eligibility criteria for public housing in the
State.
(3) SAHT may require the Courts Administration Authority or the Chief
Executive of the administrative unit that is, under a Minister, responsible for
the administration of the Correctional
Services Act 1982 to give SAHT, within a time specified by SAHT
(which must be reasonable), information in his or her possession that SAHT
reasonably requires for the performance of its functions under this
section.
Section 39—delete the section and substitute:
39—Rents
(1) SAHT may let houses
at rents fixed by regulation from time to time.
(2) Despite the provisions of any other Act, rents relating to houses let
by SAHT may be varied by regulation from time to time.
After section 39A insert:
39B—Scheme to install separate meters for all
properties
(1) The Corporation
must establish a scheme under which all land owned by SAHT—
(a) that is subject to a separate occupation; and
(b) that is supplied with water by the Corporation as part of a
reticulated water system,
will have a meter that records the amount of water supplied to that piece
of land.
(2) The Corporation
must seek to ensure that the meters required for the purposes of
subsection (1)
are fitted by 31 December 2013.
(3) The scheme is not required to extend to premises where it is not
reasonably practicable to fit a separate meter.
(4) The Corporation must, as part of each annual report up to and
including the 2013/2014 annual report, set out the following
information:
(a) information about the scheme established under
subsection (1);
(b) information about the extent to which the goal set out in
subsection (2)
is being (or has been) achieved;
(c) if, in the relevant financial year, a separate meter has not been
fitted to premises on the basis that it was not reasonably practicable to do
so—an explanation as to why the Corporation considered that it was not
reasonably practicable to fit a meter to the premises.
(5) No fee is payable by SAHT to the Corporation for the installation of a
meter in accordance with the scheme established under this section.
(6) In this section—
Corporation means South Australian Water Corporation
established under the
South
Australian Water Corporation Act 1994.
6—Insertion
of sections 41A and 41B
After section 41 insert:
41A—Eviction of tenant of SAHT on conviction for
indictable offence
(1) A tenant of SAHT
must, within 14 days of being convicted of an indictable offence committed
during a tenancy, notify SAHT of the conviction.
Maximum penalty: $2 500.
(2) SAHT may require a
tenant or SA Police to provide SAHT with a report about the tenant's
criminal history.
(3) Subject to
subsection (4)—
(a) on receipt of a notice under
subsection (1);
or
(b) if a tenant's criminal history records that the tenant has been
convicted of an indictable offence committed during a tenancy,
SAHT must give the tenant a written notice requiring the tenant to vacate
the housing being let to the tenant within 28 days of receiving the
notice.
(4) The lodgment of an
appeal against a conviction referred to in
subsection (1) has
effect as a stay of the operation of a notice under
subsection (3)
pending the determination of the appeal.
(5) A tenant who contravenes or fails to comply with—
(a) a requirement under
subsection (2);
or
(b) a notice under
subsection (3),
is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: $2 500.
41B—Eviction of tenant of SAHT on certain other
grounds
(1) If a police
officer seizes—
(a) a controlled drug or controlled plant; or
(b) equipment allegedly used in the manufacture of a controlled drug or
cultivation of a controlled plant,
from a house let by SAHT, the police officer must, within 7 days of
the seizure, notify SAHT in writing of the seizure.
(a) receives a notice
under
subsection (1);
or
(b) reasonably
believes a tenant has—
(ii) interfered
unreasonably with the use or enjoyment by another person of any property or area
near a house let by SAHT to the tenant,
SAHT must give the tenant a notice under this section (a show cause
notice).
(3) The show cause notice must state the following:
(a) —
(i) in the case of a show cause notice relating to
subsection (2)(a)—that
SAHT proposes to determine that the tenant vacate the housing being let to the
tenant on account of the seizure; or
(ii) in the case of a show cause notice relating to
subsection (2)(b)—that
SAHT proposes to determine that the tenant has caused a nuisance for the
purposes of
subsection (2)(b)(i)
or an interference for the purposes of
subsection (2)(b)(ii);
(b) the ground for the determination;
(c) an outline of the facts and circumstances forming the basis for the
ground;
(d) an invitation to the tenant to show within a stated period (the
show cause period) why the proposed determination should not be
made.
(4) The show cause period must be a period ending at least 14 days
after the show cause notice is given to the tenant.
(5) The tenant may
make written or oral representations about the show cause notice to SAHT within
the show cause period.
(6) After the
expiration of the show cause period, SAHT may make a determination, and as soon
as practicable after doing so, give a written notice about the determination to
the tenant (including the reasons for the determination).
(7) If SAHT determines
that a tenant vacate the housing being let to the tenant (under a show cause
notice relating to
subsection (2)(a)),
the written notice about the determination for the purposes of
subsection (6) has
effect as a notice requiring the tenant to vacate the housing within
28 days of receiving the notice.
(8) If SAHT makes
3 determinations relating to
subsection (2)(b)
against a tenant, SAHT must, after the third determination, give the tenant a
written notice requiring the tenant to vacate the housing being let to the
tenant within 28 days of receiving the notice.
(9) A person who contravenes or fails to comply with a notice under
subsection (7) or
(8) is guilty of an
offence.
Maximum penalty: $10 000 or imprisonment for 3 months.
(10) To avoid doubt, for the purposes of paragraph (b)(ii) of the
definition of reviewable decision in section 32A(1), the
making of a determination under this section is a matter that affects a tenant
of SAHT.
(11) In this section—
controlled drug and controlled plant have the
same respective meanings as in the
Controlled
Substances Act 1984.
7—Amendment
of section 42A—Annual report
Section 42A(2)—after "year" insert:
, including information relating to the number of times in the year that
SAHT made a requirement under section 41A(2) and any action taken by SAHT
as a result of obtaining a criminal history of a tenant through such a
requirement.
Schedule 1—Related
amendment and transitional provision
Part 1—Amendment of South Australian
Co-operative and Community Housing Act 1991
1—Amendment
of section 64—Financial transactions
Section 64—after subsection (1) insert:
(1a) The regulations may not prescribe a term of an agreement under
subsection (1) that provides that the rent payable for premises be as
determined or approved by SAHT.
Part 2—Transitional
provision
(1) Despite
section 39(1) of the South
Australian Housing Trust Act 1995 as substituted by this Act, a
rent determined by SAHT (as varied from time to time) under that section as in
force immediately before the commencement of this Act will continue to apply as
if this Act had not been enacted.
(2) However, after the commencement of this Act, section 39(2) as
substituted by this Act applies to the variation of any rent referred to in
subclause (1).