I understand there will be a process whereby tenants will have to prove to their agents or, if there is no agent, to Fair Trading in NSW or Consumer Affairs in Victoria, they they are earning less than 75 percent of what they were previously. Similar arrangements will apply in other states.
One complication is that a lot of landlord insurance policies insist that you can’t claim for loss of income unless you have sent an eviction notice. For some reason, you can and must still do that in NSW, even though you know the tenant can’t and won’t be evicted.
However, I hear the system is different in Victoria where you have to apply to VCAT first to get an eviction notice and they won’t issue them.
Or something like that. I’m waiting to hear more details.
In any case, things are neither as dire nor as disorganised as they seem. There will be processes and the tenants still owe the rent. This is not a rent holiday but it means renters can go into arrears without losing their home – provided they can prove they are genuine cases (which was the point of the original post).