New Rental Law Changes Coming to Victoria From October 2026

Victoria's rental reform hasn't slowed down the way it has in some other states. Since the ban on no-fault evictions and rent bidding took effect in November 2025, Consumer Affairs Victoria has continued rolling out changes in stages, and the next tranche lands on 13 October 2026. Most of what's coming is about proof and process rather than new rights for renters but for owners, "proof and process" is exactly where compliance risk tends to hide.

What changes on 13 October 2026

Source: Consumer Affairs Victoria, "New changes to the rental laws," last updated 30 March 2026.

The one that catches out the most owners: gas and electrical checks for every tenancy

Victoria has required 2-yearly gas and electrical safety checks since the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021 but only for agreements that started on or after 29 March 2021. If you've owned and rented out a property continuously since before that date, without a change of renter that triggered a new agreement, your property may never have been formally checked.

From 13 October 2026, that gap closes. The requirement applies to every rental agreement in Victoria, full stop, regardless of when it began. If a property has had a compliant check done by a licensed gasfitter or electrician at some point, that check still counts and the two-year clock runs from its date. If it's never been checked, the clock starts from whenever the first compliant check happens and given how much of Melbourne's long-held rental stock this potentially touches, that's not a small group of owners.

Why the bond claims change matters more than it sound

Requiring evidence for a bond claim sounds like a formality, but it shifts the practical burden earlier in the process. Rather than lodging a claim and dealing with a dispute if the renter pushes back, owners will need to have the evidence, condition reports, invoices, photos, ready before the claim is even made. For owners who've relied on a general sense that "the carpet needed replacing" rather than a documented condition report from move-in, this is the change most likely to turn an assumed bond deduction into a rejected one.

The record-keeping change is really about timing

Minimum standards compliance itself isn't new, what's new is that owners now need to prove the property was compliant at the point it was advertised, not just retrospectively if a dispute arises. In practice, this means the moment to gather evidence is before the listing goes up, not after a renter raises an issue.

What's coming after this

Beyond October, Victoria's next major shift is a phased rollout of new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards starting 1 March 2027 covering heating, cooling, hot water, showerheads, ceiling insulation and draughtproofing, with different triggers for each. It's a bigger and more expensive change than anything in the October tranche, and worth planning well ahead of the deadline rather than reacting to it once it lands.

What owners should do now

• Check when your property's gas and electrical safety checks were last done, and by whom, if you're not sure, assume it hasn't happened and book one.
• Pull together your minimum standards of evidence (photos, trade invoices, compliance certificates) now, rather than after a dispute.
• Review how bond claims have historically been handled on your property and make sure supporting evidence is being captured as a matter of course, not reconstructed after the fact.

How LongView Helps

Every property in our management portfolio has its compliance history, smoke alarms, gas and electrical checks, minimum standards evidence, tracked as a matter of course, so the October changes are largely a non-event for our owners rather than a scramble. If you're self-managing or moving to LongView and you're not sure when your property was last checked against current requirements, get in touch and we'll run through what's outstanding before the new rules take effect.