Notice to vacate (rooming houses)

If you get a Notice to Vacate, it means the rooming house owner wants you to leave. But it does not always mean that you have to leave.

New rental laws

Changes were made to renting laws on 29 March 2021. This page will be updated soon to account for the new laws.

Is the notice valid?

If you receive a Notice to Vacate, contact us for advice as soon as possible. If the notice was not filled in correctly or was not given to you the correct way it may not be valid.

To be valid, a Notice to Vacate:

must be in writing, and
must state the reason they want you to leave (except the 120-day notice), and
must state the the date they want you to leave, and
must be signed and dated by the owner, and
must be given to you in person or sent by registered mail, and
must be given to you a minimum number of days before the vacate date.

If the Notice to Vacate does not meet all these requirements, it may not be valid.

Number of days to vacate

There are many reasons for a Notice to vacate, and the amount of time before the vacate date depend on the reason for the notice and if you have a tenancy agreement for your room.

Immediate Notice to Vacate

The rooming house owner can give an immediate Notice to Vacate if you or a visitor of yours does one or more of these:

deliberately or recklessly causes or allows serious damage to a rooming house
puts other people in the rooming house in danger
seriously disrupts other residents.

Even though it is called an Immediate Notice to Vacate, you do not have to leave immediately. The owner/manager must apply to VCAT if they want to evict you. And VCAT will not give the owner a Possession Order unless the owner can prove that you or your visitor caused one of the problems listed above.

2-day Notice to Vacate

A 2-day Notice to Vacate can be given when:

you use your room for an illegal purpose, or allow other people to do so
you owe 7 or more days’ rent
you fail to carry out an order of the Tribunal in relation to a breach of duty notice
you have been given two Breach of Duty Notices under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and you breach the same duty for the third time.

60-day Notice to Vacate

The owner can give you a 60-day Notice to Vacate if immediately after the 60th day the rooming house will be:

demolished, repaired, reconstructed or renovated and this cannot be done without the room being vacant and there is no alternative room available
sold or offered for sale as a vacant property

However, you can only be given a 60-day Notice to Vacate if:

you do not have a fixed-term tenancy agreement (lease), or
the end date on the notice is on or after the expiry date of your fixed term.

120-day Notice to Vacate

The owner can give a 120-day Notice to Vacate for no specific reason if:

you do not have a fixed-term tenancy agreement (lease), or
the end date on the notice is the same as the expiry date of your fixed term

If you think that you have been given a 120-day Notice to Vacate in retaliation for exercising your rights as a resident (for example, because you asked for repairs), you can challenge the notice. But you need to do this within 60 days from the day that you received it.

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