A publicly available name-and-shame register has been proposed to expose the community of "professional squatters" trashing and jumping from rental to rental without paying rent in WA.
Property Club WA is a leading property investment company and spokesman Troy Gunasekera said a number of their landlords had reported a disturbing trend emerging on the WA housing market.
"What we're finding is in our own investigations with members who are having issues with tenants are that these people are professional squatters," he said.
"They're moving from one rental property to another without paying the rent, abusing it and off they go.
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"Currently here in the West we've got thousands of bad tenants who owe millions of dollars in rent arrears and that's a massive burden on society and presents a massive challenge to public housing.
"We're simply just asking for the Government to publish the names of bad tenants so their next potential landlord won't be affected."
Property Club WA has also called for legislation to make it a criminal offence for tenants to wilfully damage the property of landlords.
The club also contends there needed to be stricter legislation in place to protect landlords.
"Based on current property management laws, it takes many months to evict a bad tenant, or a tenant who has not paid their rent- and then they move onto another property and repeat the process," Mr Gunasekera said.
"Some landlords have to get police investigations in place to get rid of bad tenants.
"We have a club member who has a property up North where the tenant had to be evicted, and the sheriff sent to evict them was actually shot at."
Mandurah resident Rose Care knows all too well the difficulties a bad tenant can pose, after a family trashed her rental home in 2016.
Her Coodanup home was left in tatters, with smashed windows, torn-out ceiling fans and dog excrement left all over the floor. The clean-up costs had cost her almost $8000 in repairs, and took weeks to complete.
She said she fully supported the idea of a name-and-shame register after she discovered her tenants had only come to her because they had previously been evicted for the same issue.
"These people are repeat offenders, of course I want them named-and-shamed. One of them has only recently managed to get (another) property with Harcourts," Ms Care said.
While there are two defaulting tenant databases for Western Australia - the NTD and TICA, both are not publicly available and require a subscription in order to view their tenant checking systems.
The database is also restricted in its content, as tenants can only be registered if their breaches have resulted in a landlord's loss exceeding the amount of the tenant's bond.
REIWA chief executive officer Neville Pozzi said while the organisation supported some of the proposed initiatives, some aspects needed fine-tuning.
"REIWA agrees that a deterrent may reduce the likelihood of wilful damage. The question would be how much wilful damage would result in a criminal record, which could present some difficulties in determining," he said.
"Wilful damage to private property is a serious matter and REIWA encourages further discussion on which deterrents would be effective."
Mr Pozzi agreed the issue of defaulting tenants applying for a second home should also be subject to further scrutiny.
"For defaulting tenants who are leaving one tenancy and applying for another, it would be helpful if a landlord's pending claim could be placed on the database," he said.
"This would alert landlords to any potential issues associated with that tenant. REIWA also believes it would be beneficial for a tenancy database to include positive reviews of tenants as well to assist landlords and property managers with their tenant selections."
Mr Gunasekera said Property Club WA would be presenting a detailed submission on their proposal to Housing Minister Peter Tinley in coming months.
Consumer Protection WA spokesman Alan Hynd said there was an ability to change the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) when it next came up for review, although the organisation believed the protections currently in place for landlords was adequate.
"The RTA places an obligation on tenants to maintain the premises and prohibits them from intentionally or negligently causing damage to the premises. If the tenant damages the premises, the landlord can pursue them for civil damages or compensation. The criminal code already includes an offence for wilfully damaging another person's property. This includes leased premises, so police can take action for malicious damage to a rental property," he said.
"The RTA was substantially amended in 2013. This was in response to a state-wide consultation. The Government is of the view that the Act fairly balances the rights and obligations of both tenants and landlords. When the Act is next reviewed, landlords and tenants across the state will be invited to raise issues of concern and have their say."