Housing experts are warning of a “time bomb” when coronavirus rental laws expire and welfare benefits are halved, sparking calls for the national cabinet to adopt new measures to protect struggling tenants. Despite the states introducing various moratoriums on evictions and schemes aimed at encouraging landlords to negotiate, advocates say renters in most states been left with no recourse if landlords stonewall, and that some owners have insisted on payment deferrals rather than reductions. In contrast, commercial lessors are required to give rent relief proportionate to the loss of income of their tenants under a package negotiated by the national cabinet. Amelia Chaplin, 24, a hospitality worker from Adelaide, said her landlords refused to consider a rent deferral or reduction when she and her housemates lost their jobs during the pandemic. “We sent them an email giving them our situation, ‘We’ve all lost of our jobs … We were just asking if we could have a rent reduction or a rent pause’,” she said. “They didn’t respond to us for a month. “When they did respond, they said, ‘Have you applied for Centrelink or have you accessed your super? Not paying rent is not an option’.” Tenants advocates said Chaplin’s experience had not been uncommon during the crisis. “The piecemeal approach taken by state and territory governments means that many renters have been left bearing the burden of the economic lockdown,” said Joel Dignam, the executive director of Better Renting. Although the national cabinet came to an agreement on commercial tenancies and promised a six-month moratorium on evictions for all tenants, it could not broker a deal for residential renters, leaving states to legislate their own rules. Tasmania was the first state to move in March, but its eviction moratorium lasted only three months and will soon expire, while the Northern Territory did not adopt a moratorium at all. A 60-day ban preventing landlords in New South Wales from applying for recourse at the administrative tribunal will expire this week. In Victoria, which has established a fund for tenants to access rent relief and created a mediation process through the state’s consumer watchdog, only 14,150 rent variations have been registered, estimated at about 2% of all tenancies. Chris Martin, a housing expert at the University of NSW, said it was likely many tenants would be required to start paying back rent arrears they had accumulated when they reached the end of the Covid agreements they had brokered with landlords. Martin acknowledged the housing market was changing, with falling rents and an increase in vacancies in many places, but also noted welfare payments such as jobseeker would by cut by half in September. “That could be a disaster for people individually and for the sector,” he said. “That’s a bit of a time bomb.” In Queensland, which has adopted a similar package to Victoria, tenants have also fallen through the cracks. Jason Gambier, whose business was forced to close during the crisis, said he was served with an eviction notice after falling behind on rent at the height of the crisis in April. He received the notice on the same day Queensland passed its moratorium on evictions. Even though the law was retrospective, he said his real estate agent claimed he was behind on rent before the crisis and pushed ahead with the eviction. “It was shit,” he told Guardian Australia. “Instead of going to [the tribunal], I just said we’re going to move.” On Thursday, a coalition of dozens of social service groups and advocates – including Acoss and Anglicare – wrote an open letter to the national cabinet urging renewed action on tenancy protections. Among their proposals are laws to allow tenants facing hardship to terminate an unviable rental contract without being hit with debts or penalties and a “binding arbitration” process in which a state consumer authority could determine potential rent reductions. Salomae Haselgrove, from Melbourne, who also was initially declined a rental reduction after her pay was cut by 20% and her housemate was forced to move out, said her landlord told her she was unable to break her lease. “We were just told we could not … ‘You have to arrange for people to get on the lease, you can’t just leave early’,” she said. At one point, Haselgrove said, she had only $4 to her name after rent and bills came up at the same time. The landlord eventually offered a reduction of $50 a week, which she said was less than 10% of the rent. “To feel like we were making what was a reasonable offer and we were still being shot back,” she said. “It was a really scary feeling.”