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Landlords fined $50k in NSW no-grounds eviction crackdown
NSW landlords have been put on notice as the state government ramps up its crackdown on no-grounds evictions, issuing a dozen fines totalling $50,000 for rental law breaches.
The NSW government has boosted its enforcement of re-letting exclusion period laws, using data-matching technology to identify landlords breaching reforms introduced last year.
Under rental laws, landlords who evict a tenant are generally required to wait a specified period, up to 12 weeks, depending on the grounds for eviction, before they can re-let the property.
Since the beginning of the crackdown last year, NSW Fair Trading said there have been 12 fines totalling $50,050, and 13 formal warnings, with just 4 per cent of the identified properties requiring further investigation or disciplinary action.
In September 2025, a Campsie agency was fined $35,750 after a property was re-let during an exclusion period without seeking an exemption from NSW Fair Trading.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that an agent evicted a tenant on the grounds that the landlord’s relative wanted to occupy the property, but no such family member turned up, and the property was re-advertised the day after the eviction.
To enforce the laws, the NSW Rental Taskforce has been using a new, bespoke data-matching tool, which has identified around 600 properties for potential breaches of exclusion periods.
The technology continuously scans all major rental advertising platforms to find properties being advertised for re-letting during exclusion periods.
The government said the specialised technology reflected the taskforce’s proactive approach to enforcement, which was backed by an $8.4 million investment across four years to strengthen rental compliance.
“Mandating re-letting exclusion periods helps create a fairer rental market by ensuring that there are genuine reasons for eviction,” it said.
“This is especially important because potential breaches of exclusion periods can be indicative of possible unlawful evictions.”
Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Anoulack Chanthivong, said the Minns government was ensuring renters weren’t evicted without a good reason, by using data and innovation to make compliance easier for honest operators.
“This is all part of the Government’s plan to create a fairer, more transparent rental market for everyone in NSW,” he said.
“Renters now have greater protections than ever before. While the Liberals gave renters broken promises for 12 years, the Minns Labor government has given them results.”
NSW rental commissioner, Trina Jones, said the intelligence-led approach meant the highest-risk breaches were targeted quickly and effectively, rather than relying solely on complaints.
“With more than 600 properties under active monitoring and only four per cent requiring investigation, innovation like the re-letting tool means as regulators we can have a greater focus on problem areas without burdening compliant landlords and agents,” she concluded.
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