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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-04 Daily Xml
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Housing Safety Authority

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:24): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding housing improvement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE: On 17 February, the minister's agency issued housing improvements requiring a meth-contaminated house be cleaned by 17 August. On Friday 26 February, the landlord issued a form 2B to the tenant of the meth-contaminated house. This required them to provide vacant possession by Monday 1 March. Vacant possession is effectively an eviction order that requires all their possessions to be removed or risk them being seized by the landlord as abandoned goods and possibly sold off.

When experts from Flinders University recently attended the meth-contaminated home, they only entered after covering themselves in hazardous material suits. On radio this week, the tenant advised that it may cost $12,000 to $15,000 to have their possessions removed from the home and decontaminated. My questions to the minister are:

1. How can a retiree couple possibly find and pay for specialist contractors in hazmat suits in a single weekend to remove all their possessions that are contaminated by meth?

2. If the landlord now seizes their possessions as abandoned goods, what obligation does the landlord have to notify potential purchasers that their goods are contaminated?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:26): I thank the honourable member for her question. The matters as relating to the Housing Improvement Act are indeed matters that are under my responsibility. My office has been providing advice to this couple about what their particular options are, but some of these matters fall into the responsibilities particularly through the Attorney-General with her responsibility for the Residential Tenancies Act and may actually require SACAT orders, which again the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal falls within the responsibility of the Attorney-General's Department.

My office has been assisting this couple. They have also, I understand, had advice through the RentRight service, which is run by Uniting Communities in conjunction with Service to Youth, and we continue to provide advice and support on what avenues they have.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Bourke, a supplementary.

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