The Supreme Court dismissed a judicial review application challenging a Magistrates Court order terminating a social housing tenancy under s 71 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA). The Court confirmed that under s 26(2) of the Residential Tenancies Act, review is confined to jurisdictional error or denial of natural justice, and found no error in the magistrate's conclusions regarding rent calculation (no 'double charging'), the validity of rent increases (s 31A requiring 60 days' notice applies only to changes in the method of calculation, not to increases resulting from income changes under the same method), or the charging of market rent when the tenant failed to provide income information. The Court also rejected a constitutional challenge to regulation 5AB exempting the Housing Authority from the prescribed tenancy agreement form, holding that s 6 of the Act authorised such regulations.
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