Under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (ACT), the common law test of exclusive possession no longer determines whether an agreement is a residential tenancy agreement or an occupancy agreement. The determinative question is whether the agreement provides for a right to occupy stated premises for a stated term (fixed or periodic). An agreement that does not grant occupancy rights to a specific room or unit, and does not specify a term, is an occupancy agreement. The protections in Part 4 of the RTA (including retaliatory termination under s 57 and warrant requirements for eviction) apply only to residential tenancy agreements, not occupancy agreements.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 6 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 6 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.