Since 25 November 2025, you have needed a reasonable belief that a Victorian rental property meets the rental minimum standards before advertising it. From 13 October 2026, you will also need records that back that belief up, and you will need to hand them over if Consumer Affairs Victoria asks.
What changes on 13 October 2026
Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) lists several changes taking effect on that date. Three of them matter for compliance work:
- Records showing compliance with the minimum standards. Rental providers or their agents must keep records showing the property met the standards before it was advertised, offered, or the renter moved in, and must give those records to CAV if asked.
- Gas and electrical safety checks for every tenancy. The two-yearly gas and electrical safety checks are not new, but until now they have only been required for agreements entered into after 29 March 2021. From 13 October 2026 they apply to all rental agreements, whenever they started.
- A gas check before draughtproofing. Where a property has gas appliances, a licensed or registered gasfitter must do a gas safety check that identifies the ventilation the appliances need, within the 6 months before any draughtproofing work starts. The detail catches people out, so it has its own section below.
The two record-keeping duties
The record-keeping rules are new sections 65C to 65F of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, inserted by the Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2025. They sit on top of two duties that already exist.
- At move-in (section 65C). The rental provider must keep records sufficient to show the property complied with the minimum standards when the renter moved in. That is the section 65A duty, in force since the 29 March 2021 reforms.
- At advertising (section 65E). Where a property is advertised or offered for rent, the rental provider or their agent must keep records sufficient to show the reasonable belief that section 65B has required since 25 November 2025. We covered that change in our guide to the new Victorian rental laws. This is the one that applies to agencies directly.
The penalty is attached to producing the records, not only to keeping them (sections 65D and 65F). If you cannot produce them when the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria asks, the maximum fine is $31,365 for an individual or $156,825 for a body corporate. An agency trading as a company is a body corporate.
Those figures are 150 and 750 penalty units at the 2026–27 value of $209.10.
CAV no longer needs to be at the open
CAV’s Renting Taskforce has been attending open for inspections since 2024 (we wrote about its first crackdown). On 31 August 2026 it became a permanent part of CAV, with more inspectors and lawyers. By then it had inspected more than 600 properties for minimum standards and issued more than 250 official warnings and 130 infringements totalling more than $900,000.
So far the Taskforce has had to find problems itself: at opens, in listings, through reports. From 13 October it can also ask for the file. That could be the records for a property leased last week, or one advertised this morning, and the answer is whatever your records show.
So what counts as evidence?
The Act does not define “sufficient”. It lets the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria publish a notice in the Government Gazette setting out which records are sufficient, and CAV’s changes page, last updated 27 September 2026, does not refer to one. Until a notice is published, the bar is whatever stands up when the Director asks.
Our view is that the balance of probabilities points one way. A report from an independent third party that signs the property off against the rental minimum standards gives you the evidence the Act contemplates. A folder of photos on a property manager’s phone, a line in the condition report, or an owner’s word that everything is fine may not.
Whatever form the record takes, it should answer three questions on its own:
- What was checked, and against which standard.
- When it was checked, with a date before the property was advertised.
- Who checked it, and that they were qualified to.
The properties that have never had a gas or electrical check
The gas and electrical change is easy to read past, because the checks themselves are familiar. The detail that matters is which properties they have not been reaching.
A renter who signed in 2018 and has stayed on without a new agreement has never triggered the requirement. Neither has anyone else on an agreement from before 29 March 2021. Those properties are not behind on their checks in any technical sense. They have simply never been in scope, and on 13 October 2026 they all come into scope at once.
That is the group worth identifying now, because it will not appear on any overdue report.
The gas check before draughtproofing, and the trap in it
Sealing a home changes its airflow, and some gas appliances draw air from the room in order to burn safely. That is why the order is fixed in law: where there are gas appliances, fixtures or fittings, a licensed or registered gasfitter must do a gas safety check before any draughtproofing starts, and it must identify the ventilation the appliances need to work safely.
The detail that catches people out is that this is its own check. It has to be done within the 6 months before the draughtproofing starts, and it is separate from the two-yearly gas safety check. A two-yearly check with 18 months still to run is perfectly valid, and does not count for this. A check done in March 2026 does not cover draughtproofing carried out in mid-2027.
The practical rule is to book the gas check close to the draughtproofing. One visit can cover both checks, as long as it meets the information and timing requirements of each.
If the check finds an un-flued or open-flued gas appliance, draughtproofing must not go ahead. Those appliances are a health and safety risk in a sealed home. Consumer Affairs Victoria says rental providers should keep proof that an exemption applies.
Draughtproofing itself does not start until 1 July 2027, at a new rental agreement or when an existing one converts to month-to-month. The gas check requirement lands earlier, on 13 October 2026, which is why it is worth knowing now rather than in the middle of scheduling the work.
Draughtproofing is one of six new energy efficiency standards. If a property has a gas heater or gas hot water service, our gas appliance end-of-life tool shows what the 2027 rules require, the replacement options and the VEU discounts available.
How Properly gives you that evidence
Properly is our rental minimum standards assessment. Run it before each listing goes live and the record exists before anyone asks for it.
- Independent sign-off. Our assessment team checks the property against the rental minimum standards and issues a report stating whether it complies.
- Fast turnaround. The report is issued within one business day of capture, so it does not hold up the listing.
- Ready when CAV asks. Every report is stored in your Compliance Portal, so you can find it and produce it on request.
- Issues tracked to close. Anything that does not comply is listed in the portal. Once it is fixed, request a reassessment and we update the report within one business day.
- Backed by our guarantee. If CAV finds an issue we have missed, you and your owners are protected. Terms and conditions apply.
You choose how the property is captured:
| In person: we capture | Virtual: you capture | |
|---|---|---|
| Who attends | Our technician, who can complete other safety checks at the same visit. | Your team, in the Properly App during a pre-vacate or site visit. It takes under 10 minutes. |
| Timing | We attend within five business days, subject to access. Report within one business day. | Report within one business day of capture. |
Clear compliance issues before you advertise
A report with an open issue does not show the property met the standards, so fix it before the property is advertised.
If you already use Properly, go to Minimum Standards in your Compliance Portal and open the Compliance issues tab. It lists every assessment with a non-compliant or needs attention outcome. Once an issue is fixed, request a reassessment in the Properly App and we will update the report within one business day.
What to do before 13 October
- Identify properties on agreements entered into before 29 March 2021. These are the ones coming into scope for gas and electrical checks for the first time.
- For every property you expect to advertise from 13 October, make sure a record exists before it is listed, and that it shows no open issues.
- Keep records where you can retrieve them by property, not scattered across inboxes and shared drives.
If you are not sure your current records would stand up, we are happy to take you through it. Request a Properly walkthrough using the form at the end of this article and we will show you a report, how you would produce it if CAV asked, and which capture option suits your rent roll.
Sources
- New changes to the rental laws — Consumer Affairs Victoria, updated 27 September 2026
- Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (No. 46 of 2025), section 16, inserting sections 65C to 65F of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997
- Victoria Government Gazette S 234, 5 May 2026 — penalty unit value for 2026–27
- More advice, support and advocacy for Victorian renters — Consumer Affairs Victoria, 31 August 2026
- Renting Taskforce begins inspection blitz — Consumer Affairs Victoria, 2024
- Rental providers: gas and electrical safety — Consumer Affairs Victoria
- New minimum energy efficiency standards — Consumer Affairs Victoria
