Minimum standards

Under Victoria’s rental laws, your rooming house operator has a legal duty to make sure that a rooming house meets certain basic (or minimum) standards, known as ‘rooming house standards’. These standards cover facilities such as kitchens, bathrooms and laundries; your comfort, including heating and lighting; as well as security and safety. Some exceptions apply to rooming houses that are heritage listed or that must comply with other laws.

If your room or rooming house does not meet the rooming house standards, you should send your rooming house operator a request for ‘urgent repairs’. If your rooming house operator does not attend to this request quickly enough or properly, you can apply to Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria (RDRV) to resolve the issue.

Rooming houses must also comply with local council public health and wellbeing standards. If these standards are not met, you can contact your local council.

A rooming house is a building or an apartment with rooms for rent where 4 or more people can live. The rooming house operator decides who lives at the property and usually has individual agreements with each resident for paying rent. Find out more on our page about rooming houses.

The rooming house standards apply to the rooming house as well as to the individual rooms within it.

In exceptional circumstances, the Director of Consumer Affairs is able to give a rooming house operator an exemption from meeting some rooming house standards if certain modifications cannot be made because of the nature, age or structure of the rooming house, or to comply with another law. Some exceptions also apply to heritage-listed buildings.

A door to a shared bathroom or toilet must be fitted with a privacy latch that can be securely latched from the inside without a key.

This can be a bolt or catch but not a cabin hook, and it must be fitted by a qualified person.

If the rooming house has a shower, it must be in good working order.

If there is a shower, the shower head must have a 3-star water efficiency rating unless one:

• Cannot be installed, or
• Would not work effectively due to the age, nature or structure of the plumbing

If a 3-star rated shower head cannot be installed, one with a lower star rating can be installed.

Dining facilities, whether in each resident’s room or a shared common area, must include:

• Enough chairs to accommodate the maximum number of residents that can occupy a resident’s room
• A table (or tables) that can comfortably fit the number of chairs required

All gas installations, fixtures or fittings must be checked at least once every 2 years by a licensed gas fitter.

All electrical installations, fixtures and fittings provided by the rooming house operator must be checked at least once every 2 years by a licensed electrician.

All power outlets and electrical circuits must be connected to circuit breakers that comply with current Australian safety standards.

Each rooming house entrance must have a lock operated by a key from outside and without a key from inside. A key can include a device such as an electronic key fob and PIN code.

The main entry must have:

• A window, peep-hole or intercom system
• A working external light that provides enough light during non-daylight hours to provide for safe access and screening of visitors

A rooming house must include an evacuation diagram that:

• Complies with Australian standards
• Is prominently displayed in each resident’s room and in all shared areas

The Consumer Affairs Victoria website provides a sample evacuation diagram [Word].

Since 1 December 2025, each resident’s room must contain a ‘fixed heater’ that is secured to the wall, floor or ceiling.

A fixed heater includes any of the following:

• An electric ducted heating or electric hydronic heating system
• An electric non-portable heater
• A non-ducted air conditioner or heat pump with a 2-star or above heating rating

Exceptions

Rooming house operators may be exempt from part or all of the standard if they have existing fixed heating, or if installation would not be permitted due to heritage laws or owners corporation rules.

Each resident must have access to and use of food preparation facilities. These can be provided in the resident’s room or as a shared kitchen.

If these facilities are in a resident’s room, they must include:

• A cupboard with a minimum 0.1 cubic metres (100 litres) of storage capacity
• A dedicated food preparation area
• An oven and cooktop in good working order
• A refrigerator with at least 80 litres capacity
• A sink

A shared kitchen must contain:

• A dedicated food preparation area
• A lockable cupboard space for each resident, with a minimum 0.1 cubic metres (100 litres) of storage capacity
• An oven and a cooktop with 4 burners in good working order for every 12 or fewer residents who do not have an oven or cooktop in their room
• A refrigerator with at least 400 litres capacity for every 4 or fewer residents who have not been provided a refrigerator in their room, and an additional 28·5 litre capacity for each additional resident who has not been provided a refrigerator in their room, based on the maximum number of residents that the rooming house can accommodate in a common area
• A sink

For every 12 or fewer residents, rooming house operators must provide shared laundry facilities that are in good working order and that include one set of the following:

• A clothesline or other clothes drying facility
• Space with hot and cold water supply outlets suitable for a washing machine, positioned immediately next to the trough or basin
• A wash trough or basin connected to a continuous and adequate supply of hot and cold water
• A washing machine, in good working order

Inside rooms, corridors and hallways must have a level of natural or artificial light appropriate to the function and use of the room.

Residents’ rooms must have access to natural light during daylight hours, and artificial light during non-daylight hours, appropriate to the function and use of the room.

Any door used to enter or exit from a resident’s room must be fitted with a lock that is operated by a key from the outside and can be unlocked from inside without a key.

A key can include a device such as an electronic key fob with PIN code.

A resident’s room must have at least 2 power outlets in working order.

From 26 February 2024, these power outlets must be freely available for use by the resident and are in addition to any other power outlets already used to power amenities by the rooming house operator.

The installation of any power outlets must be done by a suitably licensed or qualified electrician.

A rooming house must be structurally sound and weatherproof.

Habitable rooms, bathrooms, shower rooms, toilets and laundries must have ventilation that complies with the relevant Australian building code.

A rooming house must also be free from mould and damp caused by or related to the building structure.

Each external window in the rooming house, which can be opened, must be able to be securely closed or opened without a key.

Each external window that can be opened must also have a functioning latch, with or without a key, that secures the window against external entry.

Windows in a resident’s room must have a covering that provides privacy and can be opened and closed by the resident.

From 26 February 2025, windows in a resident’s room must be fitted with a window covering that blocks a reasonable amount of light.

Any habitable room that is likely to be used as a living area, must be fitted with an internal window covering that blocks a reasonable amount of light and is appropriate for domestic household use.

Window covering cords

From 1 December 2025, all corded internal window coverings in a rooming house, such as blinds and curtains, must have secured cords.

This means that:

• There must be an anchor installed to secure cords and prevent them from forming a loose loop
• No part of the cord can extend below 1600 mm above floor level

If your room or rooming house does not meet one or more of the rooming house standards, there are steps you can take.

If you have signed a rooming house agreement for a property or room that does not meet rooming house standards on or before the day you receive the keys, you can decide whether you still want to move in or not.

Once you have moved into the property, if you notice that one or more of the rooming house standards are not met, fixing this issue is considered an urgent repair. This means that your rooming house operator has certain obligations to meet when fixing the problem.

Rooming houses must be registered with the local council.

The council may inspect the rooming house to see if it meets the standards set out in the Public Health and Wellbeing (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations 2020. These standards include (but are not limited to):

• At least one toilet for every 10 people
• At least one bath or shower and one washbasin for every 10 people
• Continuous and adequate supply of hot and cold water to all toilet, bathing, laundry, kitchen and drinking water facilities
• Rooms and communal areas in a clean and well-maintained condition

Rooming houses must have adequate and well-maintained hard-wired smoke alarms to protect residents. For more information, refer to the Building Regulations 2018.

Before you sign
Claiming compensation
Ending or breaking your lease
Repairs and maintenance
Rooming houses