When disaster strikes – FAQs for renters

Disasters like storms, floods, and bushfires can leave rental properties damaged or uninhabitable. This guide to frequently asked questions provides practical advice and resources to help you with repairs, how to protect your belongings, and the steps to find emergency housing if you need it.

When a disaster happens, it can be unclear whether your rental property is still safe to live in – and you may have a different view about this from your landlord (also called the rental provider) or the estate agent. 

As a renter, you have a right to stay at the property until the police ask you to leave. Your landlord or their agent cannot force you to leave or ask for your keys without following the correct legal steps. 

It’s not enough for the landlord or agent to show up and ask for the keys back. To evict you, they must follow the correct legal process, which also gives you the opportunity to have your say. 

Before you can be evicted, the landlord must undertake all these steps:

1. Give you a valid notice to vacate. 
2. Apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a possession order. 
3. If VCAT made a possession order, purchase a warrant of possession from VCAT.
4. Give the warrant of possession to the police, which the police will use to evict you.
5. The landlord cannot have you evicted until they have taken these 4 steps. 

The landlord or their agent cannot lock you out or personally carry out an eviction.  

If you receive a notice to vacate, seek legal advice as soon as possible. 

Getting major repairs completed in your rental property can take time, especially after a disaster.  

The law treats significant damage from storms, floods or bushfires as urgent repairs. This means that your landlord must address them immediately. They must address non-urgent repairs within 14 days.  

Despite these legal requirements, major repairs after disasters can sometimes take months or even years to be completed. 

Common reasons for delays include damage to community infrastructure, delayed planning approvals, building permits and insurance claim delays, and scarcities of building supplies and tradespeople.  

However, these challenges shouldn’t justify unreasonable delays. As a renter, you have the right to expect that the urgent repairs are completed as soon as possible. If you believe the repairs are taking too long, seek legal advice. 

For more information, see our Repairs Toolkit. 

If your rental property has been destroyed or is too damaged to live in, send a notice of intention to vacate to your landlord or agent. Once you leave, stop paying rent and don’t forget to cancel your utilities such as water, gas and electricity. 

For more information about ending a lease for a property that is no longer fit to live in, go to our page, Disasters. 

If the property is safe to live in, but you still want to move out, ask your landlord for consent to leave early. Without consent, you could be responsible for paying lease-breaking costs. 

For more information about the process for this, go to our page, lease breaking. 

If there is damage that prevents you from using all or part of your home, you may consider requesting a rent reduction. 

You can use Justice Connect’s Dear Landlord tool (justiceconnect.org.au/help/dear-landlord) to help you draft a request to send to your landlord. If your request is refused, continue paying rent in full and on time to avoid the risk of eviction.  

In the meantime, you can find information about applying for compensation on our page, compensation for renters. 

If your rental property is damaged to the extent that it is unsafe and unfit to live in, you will need to find alternative accommodation yourself.  

While it is worth asking your landlord for help, they are not legally required to provide temporary housing in most cases.