People with good intentions are putting pressure on the New South Wales government to introduce similar eviction laws as apply to general housing to residents of boarding houses. Those who understand the boarding house culture are horrified - and predict that if it is passed it will sharply increase the number of homeless people living on the streets.
Boarding houses are exempt from the current eviction laws. The Real Estate industry knows that removing a bad tenant can be a long and slow process. " Intention to evict " notice needs to be served with a long response period and then court action is required before the eviction can legally take place. All this takes time and money - and a canny tenant can delay the process by numerous appeals.
Summary eviction is the only option available to those running boarding houses to maintain a reasonable standard of order. Boarding house residents are usually men and many are suffering from the many ills that afflict society. They usually contain those suffering from Schizophrenia, alcoholism, bipolar - and many are addicted to harmful drugs. Anti social behaviour is common and the only way to contain it is the prospect of immediate eviction. This same threat is necessary to collect the rent on time.
Proprietors of this state's boarding houses are adamant that if this proposal becomes law, they will have no option other than closing their doors. The nature of their tenants is such that they will lose their only control power and unpaid rent and social disharmony will quickly spin out of control. Without boarding houses to provide shelter for society's unfortunates, more people will be forced to live on the streets and seek shelter in refuges.
These same boarding house proprietors insist that " tough love " is the only way to maintain order. They run their establishments with an " iron fist " , but the people under their roof have a clean bed and good meals in exchange for obeying the house rules. It is essential that when a tenant gets way out of line, the eviction process instantly happens. It is no idle threat - and without it the system would be in complete disarray !
The government needs to think long and hard before taking this step. In a perfect world an orderly process of maintaining order would be a civilizing element, but most boarding houses cater for a strata of society that lives outside the rules because of their addictions. There is a good chance that pressure from well meaning people will destroy the last refuge for the unfortunates of our society - by making them unworkable !
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