Our Response to Legislation Changes in Queensland

As communicated earlier this month, the Queensland Government are making changes to rental laws, some of which will be put into effect from this Thursday, May 1st, 2025.

We have now completed our work to implement InspectRealEstate and 2Apply changes that will assist you in remaining compliant. These will be live in your system by Thursday, May 1st, 2025.

It is also vital that you take note of the changes below, which we encourage you to explore in your own time. While we have made every effort to ensure you are compliant with the new legislation, it is ultimately your business’ responsibility to ensure that your processes align with your own agency’s interpretation of the law.

To read about the legislation changes in more detail, you can follow this link to the RTA website.

Updated Changes to 2Apply & InspectRealEstate on May 7th, 2025

  • The number of applicants intended to reside at a property will now display for both the ‘Just Me’ AND ‘Other’ categories. 
  • Previously, we made the ‘About Me’ question optional. We’ve now improved the wording for compliance and added a setting that allows you to remove this question entirely from your form if you wish to do so. To update this setting, go to Settings > Applications > 2Apply > Field Visibility.
  • We’ve added a helpful note to the Identification Documents section of your 2Apply form, encouraging applicants to include at least one form of Photo ID, such as a passport or driver’s licence. We’ve updated the instructions to now say ‘include 2 documents’ instead of ‘include a minimum of 2 documents’ by removing the word ‘minimum’.
    • The Identification Documents section now includes the ImmiCard as a document type.
  • The pets section of your form now only asks for the number and type of pets intended to be kept at the premises; all other questions have been removed.
  • The updated Entry Notice (Form 9) has been implemented for all InspectRealEstate users, with the adjusted notice period for entry to a tenanted property (from 24 to 48 hours).

Overview of Changes to InspectRealEstate & 2Apply ahead of May 1st, 2025

Live in all systems by Thursday May 1st, 2025

RTA Standardised Tenancy Application Form

If you use 2Apply, your account will be configured to the best of our understanding to comply with the legislation changes, as prescribed by the RTA standardised tenancy application form (Form 22).

To meet the requirement of offering two application submission methods — one of which must not involve a third-party form provider — 2Apply will make the standardised tenancy application form available for all applicants at the start of the application process. This setting will be enabled by default. To access this Setting, go to Settings > Applications > 2Apply > General. Below is how this screen will look for applicants:

We also encourage you to consider where else you might make the standardised application form available to applicants, especially if you choose to disable the setting above. For your convenience, we will make Form 22 available in your Lettings Messages as an Email Attachment in the dropdown menu by May 1st.

You will need to manually attach the form by navigating to Messages > Lettings > Select a Message and choose Form 22 from the dropdown under the Email Attachments section and update your message accordingly. You may also consider adding a link to Form 22 in your listing descriptions on listing portals.

In line with the standardised form, you will find a number of changes to your 2Apply form, such as:

Removal/ disabling of the following fields:

  • Rent price editing
  • Dependant’s name and age
  • Gender
  • Being a smoker
  • Student status
  • Reason for leaving past rental property
  • Employment address
  • Vehicle registration number
  • Emergency contacts

Removal of mandatory status for all pet-related questions, aside from the number and type of pets intended to be kept at the premises.

The ‘Agent Questions’ tab will no longer be available to you when customising your 2Apply form, as these questions are not part of the new standardised tenancy application form.

Employment history:

While applicants will still be able to add multiple current employments, only current employment information will be requested. A section of the application form will remain for applicants to add additional income (e.g. Centrelink payments) or indicate whether they are paying rent by other means (e.g. savings).

Adjustments to documents & categories:

Approved document categories will include the following:

  • Identification documents;
  • Financial documents;
  • General documents.

Applicants will be required to submit two (2) documents in each of the Identification and Financial document categories, with the option to add more should the applicant wish to do so. There will be no mandatory requirements for General documents.

Collection & storage of personal information

2Apply proactively made changes to its Data Retention Policy in late 2024 to align with state legislation Australia-wide, and is therefore already compliant with the Queensland-specific legislation around data privacy and deletion timeframes. These are as follows:

Unsuccessful applications:

  • All data from unsuccessful applications will be deleted 60 days after submission.
  • This includes all documents submitted and information entered during the application process.

Successful applications:

  • All data from successful applications will be deleted 3 years after submission.
    • This includes all documents and information entered during the application process.

Data retention for reporting:

  • Agents will still retain a record of the application submission for reporting purposes.
    • This record will only include the applicant’s name and some basic contact details.
    • No other data from the application will be stored.

Prospect data:

  • Data on prospects who enquired about a property will remain available.

Data Recovery:

  • We no longer facilitate data recovery requests
    • Users will need to download and store their data in another system, as IRE will no longer be used for historical application data storage outside of the timeframes stated above.

Recommended Actions for Approved Applications:

  • Approved applications should be saved into the agents’ trust accounting software.
    • This is necessary for maintaining records for insurance purposes.

Rules of entry

We are aware that the Entry Notice (Form 9) has not yet been updated on the RTA website to reflect the requirement to give tenants 48-hours of notice prior to entry to a tenanted rental property. We will closely monitor for these changes, and will implement the new version of Form 9 for all InspectRealEstate users once released by the RTA.

We encourage you to check the Delay Times settings in your system in relation to your inspections. You can do this by heading to Settings > Letting > Delay Times.

Supporting your business

Should you have any questions or require assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact our Support team by initiating a Live Chat via the Support button at the top of your InspectRealEstate system between the hours of 8am and 6pm AEST, Monday to Friday.

We’d like to thank you and your business for your ongoing support of Reapit, InspectRealEstate and 2Apply – It is greatly appreciated!

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