Bugger off! I pay for privacy...

Hopefully, you the reader would know that tenants are entitled to quiet enjoyment. It's a somewhat archaic term that should probably be replaced with the term 'privacy'.

The term is a bit confusing. I remember being told once by a real estate agent when I was a young law student that quiet enjoyment meant no loud music. Of course, I knew this not to be true. I don't want to bore you with the legalities of quiet enjoyment, but here we go...

There are differences between jurisdictions. The Victorian Act only refers to the right of quiet enjoyment. The Queensland Act on the other hand says tenants are entitled to reasonable peace, comfort, and privacy. This approach is much more advanced.

The concept of quiet enjoyment has been interpreted by the Courts in a restrictive manner, probably because the Acts are not explicit enough. Landlords and agents have made significant inroads leaving tenants with little substantive protection. 

To better protect tenants, we really need to work out what kind of privacy tenants need. And if landlords or agents breach those rules, we must throw the book at them. For something to be respected, it must have a value.

A fan wrote in and told me about their nosy landlord. The landlord would enter the property unannounced and sneak around under the house listening to their private conversations. He was eventually caught. The landlord would also challenge their guests while they were waiting out the front asking questions about who they are and what they were doing. That's just not good enough.

I remember back to the days of property law and the boring lectures about easements, covenants, and fixtures. They would have been a lot more interesting and exciting if we actually looked at the policy issues. Why? Because damn the man...