Word from our CEO

Taking stock over the past financial year, we directly helped over 10,000 Victorian renters with their tenancy problems. Hundreds of thousands more sought information from our helpful website that serves as something of a renting encyclopaedia. These are solid achievements for us in another pandemic year. However, in the social and economic context of more and more Victorians renting their homes, our service faces a daily dilemma: we can only answer a proportion of inquiries to our advice lines. Demand remains intense - and too often unmet - because of resource constraints.  

The bottom line is that as a community we do need to invest in enhanced services for renters. Meanwhile, we will continue to work on innovative ways to meet growing renter need. 

Jennifer Beveridge 
CEO, Tenants Victoria

Lowdown on locks

Is your rented home secure? 

Windows in rentals must have latches or locks to secure them against external entry. All external entry doors must also be fitted with a key lock. That's under minimum standards introduced in new rental laws that came in last year.

Before you enter into a lease the landlord must now tell you if the property meets the minimum standards. It’s an offence to not give you this information.

Is your rented home up to standard? Find out more on our helpful website.

Rooming house reform required

Tenants Victoria provides outreach, advice and support to people living in rooming houses. It’s been an important part of our work since we began. 'More regulation and enforcement in this area is needed,' says Agata Wierzbowski, Director of Client Services. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Census estimates of homelessness, due to be updated next year, cite people living in rooming houses among the homeless population.

Ahead of National Homelessness Week (1-7 August), read our recent submission to the Commissioner for Residential Tenancies for the Rooming Houses Lived-Experience Project.

Social housing complaints

The Victorian Ombudsman report on complaint handling in social housing says that how complaints were dealt with was the most common issue raised by social housing renters.

We’re certainly not surprised – that’s what the social housing renters often tell us too.

Read the Ombudsman's report.

Mould in the spotlight

Our lawyer Georga Wootton contributed this month to an ABC news report on mould. One in every 10 inquiries we receive right now is from a renter expressing concern about black mould in their home. View the news report on the ABC website.

Is there mould in your rented home?

We now have a dedicated page on mould and damp on our website, which sets out the steps you need to take to report mould as an urgent repair and get it fixed.