South Australia Rental Reforms 2024–2026 — What Changed for Landlords

The Reform Timeline

South Australia's tenancy landscape changed more between 2024 and 2026 than in the previous two decades. The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous) Amendment Act 2023 rolled out in phases, each one tightening the rules landlords operate under. Here is exactly what changed and when.

1 July 2024 — No-Grounds Termination Abolished

The single biggest change. Before this date, a landlord could end a periodic tenancy with 90 days' notice for no stated reason, or decline to renew a fixed-term lease without explanation. That power is gone.

Every termination notice issued on or after 1 July 2024 must cite a prescribed statutory ground under the Residential Tenancies Act 1995 and its regulations, such as sale, owner occupation, demolition, major repairs, tenant breach, or a specified conduct ground. A notice that does not name a ground, or names one without attaching the required evidence, is void.

1 September 2025 — Sales Agency Agreement Ground Added

Before this date, a landlord who wanted to sell had to wait until they had an executed contract of sale before they could issue a Form 7. The September 2025 amendment added a new trigger: entering a signed sales agency agreement with a registered land agent. This lets the landlord begin the 60-day notice process earlier in the sales campaign, rather than waiting for exchange of contracts.

The catch: merely listing the property or placing a "for sale" sign is not enough. The notice must attach a copy of the signed, dated sales agency agreement with a CBS-registered agent.

1 September 2025 — Residential Tenancies Regulations 2025

The new regulations replaced the 2010 set and updated the prescribed forms to reflect the 2024 amendments. Key operational changes:

• Updated prescribed forms, including Forms 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10
• Regulation 25 grounds for fixed-term expiry (Form 9), including sale, owner occupation, demolition, and major repairs
• Expanded mandatory evidence requirements across all property-use grounds

Any notice served on an old-format form after September 2025 is invalid, even if the substance is correct. CBS publishes the current versions at cbs.sa.gov.au.

15 January 2026 — Re-Letting Ban Clarification and Rent Increase Rules

Two technical but important clarifications took effect:

• 6-month re-letting ban calculation: The restriction period after terminating for sale, owner occupation, demolition, or major repairs is now calculated from the date of termination (when vacant possession is delivered), not the date the notice was served. This applies uniformly to both fixed-term and periodic tenancies.
• Rent increase scheduling: Amendments to section 55 explicitly prohibit lease terms that schedule incremental rent increases within a single 12-month window — for example, agreeing upfront to $10/week increases every quarter. All such staged increases are unlawful.

1 January 2026 — Mandatory Form A1 Rental Applications

Landlords advertising a vacancy on or after 1 January 2026 must use the prescribed Form A1 rental application. They cannot require prospective tenants to complete a different application form, and they cannot request information that the Form A1 does not include.

This does not directly affect the termination process, but it matters at the back end: a landlord who terminates a tenancy to re-let the property (outside the 6-month ban window) must use the Form A1 for the next tenant's application.

What Stayed the Same

Not everything changed. A few fundamentals survived the reform cycle untouched:

• Clear-day counting rules under section 3(3) remain the same — exclude day of service, count calendar days, add postal delivery allowances
• SACAT as the sole tribunal for possession orders and enforcement — the pathway through sections 93 and 99 is unchanged
• Self-help eviction penalties remain severe — up to $35,000 for individuals
• Service methods under section 120 are unchanged: personal delivery, letterbox, post, or email with prior written consent

What This Means for Your Next Notice

If you have not served a termination notice since before July 2024, everything about the process has changed. The prescribed grounds, the forms, the evidence requirements, and the re-letting restrictions are all new territory.

The Ending a Tenancy in South Australia guide covers every prescribed ground as at October 2026, with the evidence each one requires, step-by-step clear-day calculations, and the SACAT enforcement pathway if the tenant stays past the notice date.

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