Rent bidding, now outlawed.

We all know that before he was a councillor, Sean Black was a small potatoe in the realty game and it seems he was involved in the practice of lining up potential tennants to see who was prepared to pay the most to get a roof over their kids heads, otherwise known as rent bidding.

The practice puts people in a position of feeling powerless and hopeless and almost forces them to participate or walk away and continue looking and in some cases, due to circumstances or whatever they will bid well past what they can afford to secure accomidation, it is the most un-Australian and some would say unconscionable way to serve the rental community.

It seems also that it is a tactic used by realtors who have no idea of the real market and no clue as to what a property should be rented out for , fairly.

Of course these pariahs usually say things like , my owners are so happy that I'm getting the most money for them, or I've never had a complaint, nut rest assured people with houses where tennants are retained in this fashion have more vacancy days than owners where their property is rented at a fair price.

THE practice of rent bidding will be banned in Queensland from next year after new legislation was passed by State Parliament.

The new laws were to respond to the changing private rental market, Housing Minister Robert Schwarten said.

"There's been skyrocketing rents, the growth in off-campus student accommodation and rental accommodation for seniors, and the emergence of rent bidding or auctions, which I consider to be a most un-Australian and unfair practice," Mr Schwarten said.

"Queensland's tenancy laws needed to keep abreast of these changes."

Rent bidding occurs when the price of a rental property is negotiated, rather than fixed.

Mr Schwarten said the new laws included a number of measures designed to enhance protection of tenants but also balanced the interests of landlords.

Under the new laws rent increases can only be imposed six-monthly, rent bidding is outlawed and the notice period to terminate a tenancy at the end of a fixed term without grounds has increased from two weeks to two months.

The rights of lessors have been enhanced with the inclusion of new grounds of entry to rental properties to check on repairs and whether significant breaches have been remedied.

University on-campus accommodation providers will be required to lodge bonds with the Residential Tenancies Authority.