Moving out (rooming houses)

Notice of intention to vacate

If you want to move out, you need to give the rooming house operator notice of your intention to vacate.

You need to give notice of at least:

• 14 days if you have a fixed term rooming-house agreement that has not ended
• 2 days in all other situations

If you move out without giving notice, or before the end of your notice period, the rooming house operator might ask you to pay rent to cover the notice period.

You can give notice verbally, but it is better to put it in writing so you have something you can rely on later in case the rooming house operator argues you did not give enough notice and tries to get more rent from you.

Rooming house unfit to live in

You can move out immediately if the rooming house is unfit for human habitation, destroyed or damaged to the point that it has become unsafe.

You should keep evidence of this, such as photos, in case the rooming house operator tries to argue that you should not have moved out because they want to get more rent from you.

Family or personal violence

If you have a fixed term rooming-house agreement with someone else, such as your partner, and that person is subjecting you to family or personal violence you can apply to VCAT to end your agreement.

If VCAT makes an order that your agreement can end then you cannot be asked to pay any ‘lease break’ costs, such as rent to cover the usual notice period.

VCAT can also make orders about who is responsible for any outstanding costs, like rent or services, or any damage.

You also have the option to stay. You can apply to VCAT for an order which ends the agreement with the other person but allows you to stay and to start a new agreement in your name only, or in your name and the name of any other person you want to live with.

For more information on these applications and options, see our Family violence page and Family Violence Protection Tenancy Kit.

Notice to vacate

If the rooming house operator wants you to move out, they must take all these steps to evict you:

• Give you a valid notice to vacate
• Get a possession order from VCAT
• Use the possession order to get a warrant
• Give the warrant to the police

You cannot be evicted by anyone but the police.

See our pages Notices to vacate (rooming houses) and Evictions (rooming houses).

If you receive a notice to vacate you should get legal advice as soon as possible, such as from us at Tenants Victoria, from your local Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program service or the Tenancy Plus service for people who live in public or community housing. Scroll down to the next section, on notices to leave, for contact details.

Notice to leave

A notice to leave is different from a notice to vacate or an eviction notice.

It is a notice the rooming house operator can give you if they have reasonable grounds to believe that you, or a visitor of yours, have committed a serious act of violence or that you, or your visitor, are a danger to others in the rooming house.

You cannot be given a notice to leave if:

• The serious act of violence or the act that endangered the safety of a person is family violence, and
• The visitor is a family member of yours

This type of notice suspends your residency for 2 full business days. A business day is any day other than a public holiday, Saturday, or Sunday.

If you are given a notice to leave, you must leave immediately and cannot return during the suspension time, even to collect clothes or other personal belongings.

However, you can arrange for someone else to go to the rooming house to collect your belongings for you.

After giving you a notice to leave, the rooming house operator may make an urgent application to VCAT to have you evicted.

If you receive a notice to leave you should get legal advice as soon as possible, such as from us at Tenants Victoria or from your local Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program service or the Tenancy Plus service for people in public or community housing.

You cannot be given a notice to leave if you have already been given a notice to vacate for the same act of danger or violence.

At the end of your residency, the rooming house operator needs to inspect your room and complete an ‘End of rooming house agreement’ condition report.

This needs to be done within 10 days of you moving out.

The rooming house operator must give you a reasonable opportunity to be at the property at the time they do this final inspection.

You should go to the inspection to make sure the operator accurately fills in the condition report, especially if you have paid a bond that the rooming house operator may try to claim.

If you paid a bond, you should start the process to get this back as soon as possible after you move out.

You can claim your bond directly from the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority (RTBA).

You do not need to wait for the rooming house operator to do this, and you do not need their agreement.

However, if you and the rooming house operator agree about your bond being refunded to you, you can put in a joint claim to the RTBA, which may be quicker.

For more information on bonds, and who can make a claim, see our Bonds page.

If you leave any of your belongings behind when you move out, the rooming house operator needs to keep them safe and take steps to get them back to you.

You should contact the rooming house operator as soon as possible to arrange a time to pick your things up.

The longer you wait, the more likely there is a chance your belongings could get lost, or that the operator will ask you to pay for storage.

If any of your belongings are lost or damaged and the rooming house operator did not follow the law, you can claim compensation.

For more information see our page Goods left behind.

VCAT hears disputes between residents and rooming house operators.

It is not a court, but it can make decisions that must be followed by rooming house operators and residents.

It is intended to be informal and cheap, and to resolve disputes quickly and fairly.

For more information see our page VCAT.

View our handy pocket guide on moving in, living in, and moving out of a rooming house.

See the list below for links to the laws and regulations on the topics set out on this page.

Rooming houses
Moving in (rooming houses)
Living in a rooming house
Sharing rooms (rooming houses)
Duties and breaches (rooming houses)
Notices to vacate (rooming houses)
Evictions (rooming houses)