On 13 October 2026 the last big batch of Victoria’s Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2025 switches on. It’s the same Act that brought in portable bonds on 1 July. This batch is less about new schemes and more about paperwork: the evidence and records that back up what you’re already doing.
One change touches the money directly. From 13 October, agents and rental providers can’t charge renters for applications, checks, admin or failed payments. If any of those fees pass through your trust account today, they need to stop by 13 October.
The short version
- At least 3 days before you claim a bond, give every renter the evidence behind it: invoices, receipts, quotes or photos. It can’t contradict the condition report.
- Agents and rental providers join the ban on renter fees. That means no application, background check, credit check, identity check, admin or failed-payment fees, and no fee for paying rent beyond a surcharge another law allows.
- Two-yearly gas and electrical safety checks now apply to every tenancy, including ones that started before 29 March 2021.
- You need records showing the property met the minimum standards when it was advertised and when the renter moved in. Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) can ask for them.
- Before 13 October, turn off renter fees in your fee schedule and property management software, and change your bond claim routine.
Where the changes come from
The Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2025 became law on 25 November 2025. Any part of it not already in force starts on 13 October 2026, and CAV confirmed the list on its rental law changes page on 22 September. The fee rules also rely on regulations that have banned third-party businesses from charging renters these fees since 31 March 2026.
Portable bonds came from the same Act, and we covered them in Victoria’s Portable Rental Bond Scheme. This article picks up the rest.
Bond claims: evidence first, then the claim
From 13 October, a new section 411(1A) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 applies. It says the rental provider or agent must give each renter the evidence behind a bond claim. That has to happen at least 3 days before the claim is made.
“Bond claim evidence” has a narrow meaning. It’s documents: an invoice, a receipt, a quote, a photograph, or other evidence the regulations prescribe. It also must not conflict with a statement in a condition report. So if the ingoing report already records a stained carpet, a photo of that stain won’t support a claim for it.
If a claim ends up at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), the same test applies to the application. Applying for a bond order without supporting evidence, or with evidence that conflicts with a condition report, is an offence. The penalty is up to 25 penalty units for an individual ($5,227.50) and 125 for a company ($26,137.50).
In practice:
- Every renter, not just the lead one. In a share house, each renter on the bond gets the evidence.
- Count the days before you lodge. Send the evidence, wait at least 3 days, then submit the claim to the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority (RTBA). Put it in the vacate checklist so nobody lodges the day after the final inspection.
- Build the pack at the inspection. Photos, quotes and invoices are what count. A file note saying “carpet damaged” isn’t evidence under the new definition.
- The rest of the process stays the same. The renter still has 14 days to accept a claim you submit, and disputes still go to Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria (RDRV) or VCAT.
For the trust account, nothing changes when the money arrives. An agreed claim is paid by the RTBA, receipted to the vacated tenancy as a bond claim and disbursed to the owner. What changes is the paperwork behind it. Keep the evidence you sent, and the date you sent it, with the claim.
Fees you can no longer charge renters
This is the one to act on first. Section 51A of the Act has banned certain renter fees since 31 March 2026, but it only applied to third-party businesses. Rental providers and their agents were exempt. From 13 October the exemption goes. Under the new wording, everyone except banks and other authorised deposit-taking institutions is barred from demanding or receiving a fee for a prescribed matter. The matters are tied to rental applications and paying rent.
The prescribed matters are listed in regulation 21C of the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021:
- background checks, credit checks and identity verification
- tenancy history and tenancy database checks
- administrative costs
- failed payments
- the rental application itself
- rent payment, other than a payment surcharge another law allows
The penalty is up to 80 penalty units for an individual ($16,728) and 400 for a company ($83,640).
“Failed payments” is the one I’d check first. Some offices pass a dishonour fee on to the tenant when a rent payment bounces, usually as a tenant invoice that’s receipted into trust and paid to the agency. From 13 October that’s a fee the agency can’t charge. The same goes for any admin fee raised on a tenant’s ledger in connection with rent.
Watch the fees already raised, too. The section bans receiving these fees as well as demanding them. If tenants still owe any on 13 October, get advice before you collect them.
Gas and electrical checks now cover every tenancy
Two-yearly gas and electrical safety checks have been required since 29 March 2021, but only for agreements entered into on or after that date. Tenancies that started earlier and never moved onto a new agreement have sat outside the rule. From 13 October they’re in.
The rental provider must now make sure of the following:
- Electrical. The electrical installations, appliances and fittings they provide are checked every 2 years by a licensed or registered electrician, to the Australian standard for periodic assessment (AS/NZS 3019).
- Gas. If they provide anything that uses or supplies gas, a licensed or registered gasfitter does a gas safety check every 2 years.
- The date on request. If a renter asks, they get the date of the most recent check in writing.
- When a renter moves in. If there’s been no check in the 2 years before a renter first moves in, one is arranged as soon as practicable.
There’s a related rule for draughtproofing. Draughtproofing work can only go ahead after a licensed or registered gasfitter has done a pre-draughtproofing gas check within the previous 6 months. The gasfitter has to advise on flueless or open-flued gas appliances, the areas that need ventilation and where draughtproofing shouldn’t go. That matters because draughtproofing is one of the minimum energy efficiency standards CAV says will phase in from 1 March 2027.
For the trust account, the practical issue is cash. If your rent roll has long-running tenancies from before March 2021, a batch of gas and electrical invoices may land on owners at once. Run a report of tenancies by start date, get owner approval and plan the payments, so no owner’s ledger is asked to pay more than it holds. An overdrawn ledger is one of the audit red flags you don’t want. File the certificates against the property, because they’re part of your minimum standards records too.
Records that prove the minimum standards
Since late 2025 you haven’t been able to advertise a property unless you reasonably believe it meets the rental minimum standards. From 13 October you also need records that show it.
- When the renter moves in. The rental provider must keep records that show the property met the minimum standards when the renter moved in (section 65C).
- At advertising. Whoever advertises or offers the property, rental provider or agent, must keep records that show it met them when it was advertised (section 65E).
- On request. If the Director of Consumer Affairs asks, the records have to be produced. Failing to produce them carries up to 150 penalty units for an individual ($31,365) and 750 for a company ($156,825).
The Act lets the Director publish guidance on which records are enough, so check CAV’s website for it. In the meantime, I’d keep dated photos taken at listing and a completed copy of CAV’s minimum standards checklist. Add invoices for any work done to meet the standards, and the ingoing condition report. Keep them with the property file, not in a property manager’s inbox.
What’s still to come
- 1 March 2027. Minimum energy efficiency standards start phasing in, covering heating, cooling, hot water, showerheads, ceiling insulation and draughtproofing.
- By 1 June 2027. It becomes an offence to refuse a tenancy because the renter chose to pay the bond straight to the RTBA.
- No date yet. The Government has also flagged caps on the cost of breaking a lease.
Your checklist before 13 October
- Change the vacate routine. Final inspection, evidence pack, evidence sent to every renter, then at least 3 days before the claim goes into RTBA Online.
- Switch off renter fees. Check your fee schedule and property management software for application, admin, check and dishonour fees charged to tenants, and turn them off.
- List the tenancies that started before 29 March 2021. Book gas and electrical checks, get owner approval and plan the funds.
- Start a records folder for every listing. Photos, checklist, invoices and the condition report, filed against the property.
- Tell your owners. Some will see invoices for safety checks they haven’t had before, and it’s better they hear why from you first.
We run trust accounts for Victorian agencies, so fee settings and bond claim records are the parts of this we deal with. If you’d like us to check yours before 13 October, get in touch. Our Victorian trust accounting page covers the state’s other rules, including the three-business-day deadline for reporting a trust account deficiency.
Sources: New changes to the rental laws (Consumer Affairs Victoria, updated 22 September 2026). Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (Act No. 46 of 2025), sections 2, 9 to 11, 13 and 15 to 20. Residential Tenancies Amendment (Housing Statement Reform and Part 4A Site Agreements) Regulations 2025 (S.R. No. 123/2025), regulation 7, inserting regulation 21C. Bond claims and refunds (Consumer Affairs Victoria, updated 28 June 2026). Checklist: rental properties minimum standards (Consumer Affairs Victoria). Strengthening rights for renters (Victorian Government, updated 8 May 2026). Penalties are converted at the 2026-27 penalty unit value of $209.10. Dates are current as at September 2026. This article is general information, not legal advice.