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26: Duration of order determining market rent
or “How long the decision about fair rent lasts and when it can be looked at again”
You could also call this:

“Landlords can't charge more rent than what's allowed, and must give back any extra money they collected.”

If the Tribunal decides on a specific amount of rent under section 25, you can’t be asked to pay more than that amount while the order is in effect. It’s against the law for your landlord to ask for more rent than what the Tribunal has set.

You don’t have to pay any rent that’s higher than what the Tribunal has decided, and you can’t be forced to pay it either.

If your landlord has taken more rent from you than they should have, the Tribunal can make them give it back to you. The Tribunal might decide not to make the landlord give back all of the extra money if there are special reasons why that wouldn’t be fair.

If the Tribunal orders your landlord to give you a refund, you have choices about how to get your money back. You can either get the refund directly, or you can take the amount off your future rent payments. You have up to a year after the Tribunal’s decision to use the money this way if you want to.

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Next up: 28: Increase of rent by agreement or order in case of substantial improvements, improved facilities, or variation of terms

or “Rent can go up if the landlord makes the house better or changes the agreement in a way that helps you.”
Next

Part 2 Tenancy agreements
Key money, bonds, and rents

27Rent in excess of market rent irrecoverable

  1. Where the Tribunal makes an order under section 25, the landlord shall not, in respect of any period during which the order is in force, require the payment of any sum by way of rent in excess of the amount specified by the Tribunal in the order.

  2. Requiring the payment of any amount by way of rent in contravention of subsection (1) is hereby declared to be an unlawful act.

  3. No amount by way of rent in excess of the amount so specified in any such order shall be payable or recoverable in respect of any period during which the order is in force.

  4. Where the Tribunal is satisfied that the landlord of any residential premises has received any amount by way of rent that, by virtue of subsection (3), was not lawfully payable, it shall order that the whole of that amount be refunded by the landlord to the tenant, except to the extent (if any) that the Tribunal considers, having regard to the special circumstances of the case, it would be unjust to require such a refund in full.

  5. Where the Tribunal makes an order under subsection (4) for the refund of any amount to the tenant of any residential premises, the tenant shall be entitled, in addition to any other remedy that the tenant may have, to deduct the whole or any part of the amount to be refunded from any sum that may become payable by the tenant to the landlord under the tenancy agreement at any time within 1 year after the date of the order.

Compare
  • 1955 No 50 s 23
  • 1973 No 26 ss 10, 11
  • Residential Tenancies Act 1978–1981 s 36(6) (SA)