Home in Place works with a wide range of government and community support agencies. We have listed some of them on our website.
In this article we would like to highlight the importance of tenant advocacy services.
Advocacy services can provide assistance, information and in some cases, legal advice to tenants. They can help you communicate, resolve issues and negotiate with your landlord or a housing provider such as Home in Place, and they can attend meetings with you.
What a good advocate should do
A good tenant advocate should:
- Listen to you
- Be free of judgement or bias
- Find the issues that they can help you with
- Give you thorough and accurate information about your options for addressing the issues
- Help you to present and express your views and wishes to others
- Help you to understand and defend your rights
- Increase your skills and knowledge to advocate for yourself
- Help you to protect your psychological safety during a meeting – for example if you are becoming overwhelmed or upset, your advocate can ask for a break until you feel able to continue.
- Respect your personal boundaries
What a good advocate shouldn’t do
A good tenant advocate should not:
- Give you their personal opinion
- Make judgements about you or people close to you
- Pressure you to make a decision or take a certain action
- Have access to your banking or financial information, Centrelink or Veteran Affairs account
- Disclose your personal information to other people, services or agencies without your consent
- Ask you for money or favours in exchange for their support
Tenant Advocacy Services
Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) – 1800 700 600
Disability Gateway – 1800 643 787
Tenants Union/Tenants Advice & Advocacy Service (NSW)
– Hunter – 1800 654 504
– Mid Coast – 1800 777 722 or 02 6583 9866
– New England and Western – 1800 836 268
– Northern NSW Aboriginal TAAS – 1800 248 913
– Murra Mia (Southern NSW) TAAS – 1800 672 185
– Western NSW Aboriginal TAAS – 1800 810 233
NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) – 1300 006 228
Tenants Queensland (formerly Tenants’ Union of Queensland) – 1300 744 263
Residential Tenancies Authority (QLD) – 1300 366 311
Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) – 1300 753 228
