Victoria has rewritten its rental laws twice in five years. The first big tranche commenced in March 2021, and a second, larger one on 25 November 2025, with further pieces switching on in March 2026, October 2026 and March 2027.
If you own a rental in Victoria and you’ve been running it the way you always have, some of what you’re doing is now out of date. Not dramatically, and none of it is hard to fix, but a few of the changes turn things that used to be fine into things that aren’t valid.
This is a plain summary of where the rules sit now, organised around the decisions you actually have to make: ending a tenancy, putting the rent up, getting the property up to standard, pets, bond and applications. There’s a dated table at the end of what’s already commenced and what’s still coming.
One thing before we start. Victoria calls you a “rental provider” and your tenant a “renter” in all of its forms and legislation. We’ve stuck with landlord and tenant here because that’s how people talk, but you’ll see the official terms on every form you fill in.
Ending a tenancy: the change that matters most
This is the one that catches people, so it goes first.
You can no longer end a tenancy without a reason. Since 25 November 2025, a notice to vacate must state a valid reason listed in the Act, and that applies even at the end of a fixed term. The old “end of fixed term, no reason required” notice is gone.
What happens instead: when a fixed-term agreement runs out, it automatically rolls into a periodic (month-by-month) agreement, unless you and your tenant sign a new fixed term or you issue a valid-reason notice to vacate.
That’s a real change in how you plan. If you were counting on a fixed term expiring to get the property back, you now need one of the reasons below and the evidence that goes with it.
The valid reasons, and how much notice each needs
These are the main provider-side reasons, the ones you’d use when the tenant hasn’t done anything wrong. CAV lists two more that only apply where a government authority owns the property. On a fixed-term agreement the termination date has to fall on or after the end of the term. On a periodic agreement you can serve a notice at any time, as long as it’s for a valid reason.
| Reason | Notice | Evidence you must supply |
|---|---|---|
| Selling the property, or putting it up for sale, and it must be vacated | 90 days | A signed contract of sale, an authority to sell with a licensed agent, or a contract of sale prepared by a conveyancer or legal practitioner |
| You or an immediate family member moving in | 90 days | A witnessed statutory declaration from each owner, either confirming you intend to live there or naming the person and their relationship to you, and acknowledging the six-month rule |
| You moving in, where it’s written into the agreement’s additional terms | 14 days | The rental agreement itself, plus a witnessed statutory declaration from each owner with the date you intend to move in |
| Repairs that can’t happen with the tenant there | 90 days | A building permit, or photos plus a contract or quote from a qualified tradesperson stating what’s needed, why the property must be vacated and how long it will take |
| Renovations that can’t happen with the tenant there | 90 days | A building permit, and only a building permit. CAV is explicit that photos and a tradesperson’s quote will not support a renovation notice |
| Demolition | 90 days | A demolition building permit and a contract with a qualified builder or demolisher stating the date |
| Change of use, for example to business use | 90 days | A witnessed statutory declaration naming the business and confirming it won’t be re-let as a residence within six months, plus an ABN, business registration or planning permit |
If the evidence isn’t supplied, the notice is invalid. That’s an easy way to have a notice fail, so it’s worth reading that column twice before you serve anything.
The two owner-moving-in rows are the other trap. There are genuinely two different routes with two different notice periods, and which one applies depends on what’s in the additional terms of your agreement. Check your agreement before you pick a number.
A six-month restriction on re-letting applies to the sale, demolition, change-of-use and family-moving-in reasons, unless VCAT says otherwise. And you can’t shorten an agreement in order to serve a sale notice.
Where the tenant is at fault the periods are much shorter: 14 days where they owe at least 14 days’ rent, where the property is being used illegally, or where a third breach of the same duty occurs after two breach notices; immediate where serious damage has been caused deliberately or recklessly, or where someone has been put in danger.
You can read the full list on Consumer Affairs Victoria’s notice to vacate page, and it’s worth doing before you serve one.
Two more things. A notice can’t be given because your tenant asked for repairs, requested a pet or challenged a rent increase, and a notice that amounts to unlawful discrimination is invalid. And if your tenant doesn’t leave by the termination date, you don’t change the locks. You apply to VCAT for a possession order.
Putting the rent up
Three rules, and getting any of them wrong makes the increase invalid rather than merely awkward.
Once every 12 months. For any agreement that started, or became periodic, on or after 19 June 2019, rent can go up no more than once a year. Agreements older than that still sit under the six-month rule. During a fixed term you can’t increase at all unless the agreement says you can and sets out how the increase is worked out.
Ninety days’ notice. This went from 60 to 90 days on 25 November 2025. If you’re used to giving two months, you’re now a month short.
The right form, with your maths shown. You have to use Consumer Affairs Victoria’s Notice of proposed rent increase form, and it has to state how you calculated the increase clearly enough that your tenant can check it. CAV publishes examples of wording that fails, and they’re instructive: “based on the rental market valuation”, “as per the rental provider’s instructions”, and simply “CPI” are all invalid. What works is specific: “The next rent increase will be by 1.8% in line with the Consumer Price Index increase as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the September 2025 quarter.”.
Your tenant can ask CAV or VCAT to assess whether an increase is excessive, and since 31 March 2026 there are additional factors they’re allowed to weigh when they do.
Doing your own rent review is not difficult, but it’s the job most self-managing owners put off. Comparable listings in your suburb, adjusted for condition, will get you most of the way there, and working out how much rent to charge is a lot easier before the 90-day clock starts than after.
Minimum standards, and the new advertising rule
Victoria has 15 categories of rental minimum standards: bathrooms, electrical safety, heating, kitchen, laundry, lighting, locks, mould and damp, structural soundness, toilets, ventilation, vermin-proof bins, windows, window coverings and window covering anchors.
The change on 25 November 2025 was about when they apply. Your property has to meet the standards at the time you advertise it, not just before the tenant moves in, and it’s an offence to advertise one that doesn’t. CAV takes public reports about advertised rentals, including ones below standard.
Practically, that means the compliance work happens before the photos, not during the application period.
The ones that most often catch out an owner who hasn’t looked at this since 2021:
- Heating. A fixed heater, in good working order, in the main living area. Not a portable one. For agreements entered from 29 March 2023 it also has to be energy efficient, which rules out a lot of older units.
- Electrical safety. A modern switchboard with circuit breakers and safety switches. An old fuse board may mean a full switchboard replacement.
- Window covering anchors. New from 1 December 2025: every corded internal blind or curtain needs an anchor so the cord can’t form a loop. CAV supplies the kits free.
- Locks. External entry doors need a working lock that can’t be opened from outside without a key. CAV allows a few alternatives and lists several exceptions, so check its list before you spend anything.
- Mould and damp caused by or related to the building structure, in any room.
- Vermin-proof bins for rubbish and recycling, meeting your council’s collection standards.
The standards apply to agreements that started on or after 29 March 2021, or that were running earlier and became periodic on or after that date.
Smoke alarms are now an annual job. Since 25 November 2025 you must arrange a safety check every year, on every rental agreement, regardless of when it started. Book it as a recurring appointment and it stops being something to remember.
If you’re getting a property ready, the Victorian leasing guide walks through the practical sequence, and a proper digital condition report at the start is what makes the end of the tenancy straightforward.
Pets
Your tenant asks using a prescribed pet request form, one per pet. From the day after you receive it, you have 14 days to do one of two things: consent in writing, or apply to VCAT and tell your tenant you’ve done so within those same 14 days.
Do nothing for 14 days and consent is taken as given. That’s the part to diarise.
If you go to VCAT, the tribunal decides whether refusing is reasonable, weighing the type of animal, the type of property, the fixtures and fittings, and anything else relevant such as council by-laws. Your tenant can’t keep the pet while it’s being decided.
Two other things. Assistance dogs aren’t pets for these purposes, and pet bonds are not allowed in Victoria. You can’t ask for extra money to cover an animal.
Bond, and the new application rules
Bond is capped at one month’s rent, unless the weekly rent is more than $900 or VCAT has set a different amount. Above $900 a week there’s no maximum.
Lodge it with the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority within 14 days of receiving it, not counting public holidays. The RTBA sends a receipt with the bond number within seven days. Holding a bond in your own account is not an option, and if you’re self-managing this is the step most worth automating, because the deadline is short and easy to lose track of. Our bond management tool exists for exactly this reason.
On applications, three things changed on 31 March 2026:
- You must use the prescribed Residential Rental Application form, and you can only ask for the information set out in it.
- What you can ask is limited to what’s needed to assess suitability, confirm identity, and confirm the applicant can pay the advertised rent.
- Third-party businesses can’t charge applicants fees for applications or rent payments. Only you, your agent and banks can, and for you and your agent that changes on 13 October 2026.
There are also rules, in force since 25 November 2025, about how you handle applicants’ personal information, including destroying or de-identifying it, and it’s an offence to disclose it without consent. If you’ve been keeping a folder of unsuccessful applications, that’s the practice to stop.
And rental bidding is banned outright, in every form. You can’t invite higher offers, you can’t accept one that’s offered unprompted, and you can’t accept more than one month’s rent in advance. Advertise a fixed figure and let it stand. Screening on the strength of the application rather than the size of the offer is a better way to choose a tenant anyway, which is most of what tenant screening comes down to.
What’s changed, and what’s still coming
Everything from 25 November 2025 onwards comes from Consumer Affairs Victoria’s new changes to the rental laws page, which is the one to check if you’re reading this some time after we wrote it.
| Date | Change | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 29 March 2021 | The first reform tranche, including the rental minimum standards, which apply to agreements from this date onwards | In force |
| 25 Nov 2025 | No-fault evictions banned; rent increase notice and certain notices to vacate extended to 90 days; all rental bidding banned; minimum standards required at advertising; annual smoke alarm checks; renter privacy rules | In force |
| 1 Dec 2025 | Window covering anchors added as a minimum standard; heating standard for rooming houses | In force |
| 31 Mar 2026 | Prescribed rental application form; limits on what applicants can be asked; third-party application and rent-payment fees banned; extra factors in rent increase assessments | In force |
| 13 Oct 2026 | Advance notice and evidence required for bond claims; records required to show minimum-standards compliance at advertising; gas and electrical safety checks every two years; gas check before draughtproofing; providers and agents banned from charging application fees | Coming |
| From 1 Mar 2027 | Minimum energy efficiency standards for heating, cooling, hot water, showerheads, ceiling insulation and draughtproofing, phased with different triggers | Coming |
The October 2026 one worth putting in your calendar now is the two-yearly gas and electrical safety checks, because it applies to every agreement whether it started before or after that date. The bond claim change is the other: from then, you have to tell your tenant in advance that you’re claiming and provide evidence to support it.
The bottom line
None of this makes a Victorian rental impossible to self-manage. It makes it more procedural, which is a different thing, and procedure is exactly what a decent system handles for you.
Three habits cover most of it. Diarise the dates, because 90 days for a rent increase, 14 days for a pet request and 14 days for a bond lodgement are all shorter than they feel. Keep the evidence, because a notice to vacate without its paperwork is just a piece of paper. And do the compliance work before you advertise, not after, because that’s where the rule moved.
Everything else is the same job it always was: a well-presented property, a properly screened tenant and a written record of the condition it was in when they moved in. If you’d like the moving parts handled for you, renting out your property walks through how self-managing works end to end, and our digital lease agreements are kept current with the Victorian changes, including the November 2025 tranche, so you’re not working from a template you downloaded in 2019.
Self-managing a Victorian rental?
Current Victorian lease agreements, digital condition reports, bond lodgement and rent collection in one place, with licensed agents on the phone seven days a week.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still end a tenancy at the end of a fixed term in Victoria?
Only with a valid reason listed in the Act, and with the evidence that reason requires. Since 25 November 2025 there’s no “no reason” notice, even at the end of a fixed term. If no valid reason applies, the agreement rolls over into a periodic one automatically.
How much notice do I give if I’m selling?
Ninety days, and you need to supply either a signed contract of sale, an authority to sell with a licensed agent, or a contract of sale prepared by a conveyancer or legal practitioner. The termination date can’t fall before the end of the fixed term.
How often can I increase the rent?
Once every 12 months for agreements that started or became periodic on or after 19 June 2019. You need to give 90 days’ notice on the correct CAV form and show how you calculated the increase.
Can I refuse a pet?
Not on your own. You have 14 days from the day after the request to either consent in writing or apply to VCAT and tell your tenant you’ve done so. If you do neither within 14 days, consent is taken as given. Pet bonds aren’t allowed.
How much bond can I ask for?
One month’s rent in most cases. More is only possible where the weekly rent is over $900 or VCAT has ordered it. Lodge it with the RTBA within 14 days.
Do the minimum standards apply to my property if the tenant moved in years ago?
They apply to agreements that started on or after 29 March 2021, and to older agreements that became periodic on or after that date. The annual smoke alarm check applies to every agreement regardless of start date.
What happens if I advertise a property that doesn’t meet the standards?
Since 25 November 2025 you have to reasonably believe the property meets the minimum standards at the point you advertise, and advertising one that doesn’t is an offence. CAV takes public reports about it.
Related reading
Written by the PropertyNow team. Last updated: September 2026.
Disclaimer: This article is general information only and is intended as educational material. PropertyNow nor its associated or related entities, directors, officers, or employees intend this material to be taken as advice either actual or implied. Tenancy law changes and how it applies depends on your circumstances. You shouldn’t act on any of the above without checking the current position with Consumer Affairs Victoria or seeking qualified advice.