The most common reasons to claim compensation are for breaches of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 by the rental provider.
Breaches include these issues:
- Repairs, including safety-related repairs and maintenance [sections 68 and 68A]
- Your ‘quiet enjoyment’ is disturbed [section 67], such as the rental provider turning up without proper reason or notice or repair issues stopping you from enjoying all or part of your home
- The property is not reasonably clean or vacant on the day you are to move in [section 65]
- The property does not meet minimum standards [section 65A]
- Safety check records for gas and electricity are not being kept and produced [section 68B]
- Locks and keys [sections 70, 70A and 70B]
- Replacement appliances, fixtures and fittings do not meet certain standards [section 69]
Note that in the above list and elsewhere on this page the sections in brackets, such as [section 68], refer to sections in Victoria’s Residential Tenancies Act 1997. See the Resources section at the bottom of this page for links to the laws. There are similar, but not identical, sections that apply for residents of rooming houses and caravan parks.
Find out more about giving a formal notice about a breach to the rental provider on our page on Landlord breaches.
Also see our page about Consumer Affairs Victoria’s guidelines on rental providers’ and renters’ duties. If a compensation claim goes to VCAT, VCAT will take these guidelines into consideration when making decisions about the claim [section 211B]. You can also view the full guidelines on Consumer Affairs Victoria’s website.
Consumer Affairs Victoria guidelines
Repairs
By law, the rental provider has a duty to ensure:
- Your rented home is ‘maintained in good repair and in a reasonably fit and suitable condition’, including any shared areas they own or manage [section 68]
- All repairs are done by a ‘suitably qualified person’ [section 68]
- There is compliance with safety-related repairs and maintenance requirements [section 68A]
You may be able to claim compensation if the rental provider or agent breaches these duties and delays or does not do repairs.
Before seeking compensation, we recommend you first follow the steps for getting repairs done. See our pages on Repairs and maintenance and Safety requirements.
You must tell the rental provider in writing if anything needs to be repaired or is damaged as soon as possible, especially if not fixing the problem could cause more damage [sections 62 and 72AA]. If you apply to VCAT for compensation it will consider whether you gave the rental provider written notice [section 211]. If you do not give written notice this could affect your compensation claim.
You will need to show both your loss and its cause to make your claim, so remember to keep evidence of the problem and your costs.
Examples
Here are some examples of potential compensation for repairs that the rental provider did not fix, or delayed fixing:
- The roof is leaking, and you could not use part of your home until it was fixed
- The hot water system isn’t working, and you could not shower at home until it was fixed
- The heater is faulty, or the property does not meet the minimum standards for heating, and you had to buy a heater to use until the problem was fixed
- The stove is faulty, or the property does not meet the minimum standards for kitchens, and you could not cook at home until this was fixed
- The pool fence is damaged, and you could not use the pool or the outdoor area until it was fixed
You might also get compensation if your electricity bill increased due to repairs being done. Examples of this are running heaters or fans to dry out carpets after a burst water pipe, or tradespeople operating a lot of power tools during repairs.
Depending on the circumstances, you might also be able to claim for loss or damage to your belongings if this was caused by a repair issue that the rental provider knew about, or should have known about, but did not fix or delayed fixing.
You can also claim compensation for loss of quiet enjoyment when this has been affected by repair issues. For example, you could not enjoy part of your home because there was a leak, it was unsafe, or tradespeople were working there.
‘Quiet enjoyment’ disturbed
By law, the rental provider has a duty to take all reasonable steps to ensure that you have quiet enjoyment of your home [section 67].
You may be able to claim compensation if the rental provider or agent breaches this duty.
You need to show both your loss and its cause to make your claim, so remember to keep evidence of the problem and your costs.
For more information about the laws on when and how rental providers and real estate agents can enter your home see our page on Privacy and entry.
Examples
Some examples of potential compensation for breaches of quiet enjoyment include these:
- The rental provider, their agent, or someone they have sent to your home have not followed the laws in the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 about entering the property, such as turning up at your home without giving you proper notice or entering your home without a proper reason
- You are not able to fully enjoy your home because of repair issues, such as a roof leak that stops you from using the room or rooms affected by the leak, or because tradespeople are working in your home
- You are not able to enjoy all or part of your home because it was not reasonably clean or vacant on the day you were supposed to move in
- You are not able to get into your home because the rental provider or agent have not given you keys
- You are not able to get into your home because the rental provider or agent have changed the locks or illegally evicted you
Locks and keys
By law, the rental provider has a duty to ensure that:
- All external entry doors, other than screen doors, have a working deadlock, unless an exception applies, in which case they must be fitted with a lock that is operated by a key from the outside [section 70]
- There are working locks on all windows capable of having a lock [section 70]
- If they change any lock that you are given a key to the new lock as soon as possible [section 70]
- If you have changed the locks because of family or personal violence, they do not give a copy of the new keys to a person who is excluded from the property under an intervention order [section 70A], or is no longer on the rental agreement [section 70B]
You may be able to claim compensation if your rental provider or agent breaches this duty.
You need to show both your loss and its cause to make your claim, so remember to keep evidence of the problem and your costs.
Faulty locks are an urgent repair
If you cannot lock up your home, you should report this to the rental provider and agent immediately. Where locks are broken or faulty, take action straight away to get urgent repairs.
Even though the rental provider is at fault for not providing working locks, it might affect your claim if you did not act on the problem quickly and take any steps you could to protect yourself and your belongings.
For more information on arranging for urgent repairs see our page on Repairs and maintenance.
Examples
Some examples of potential compensation for breaches relating to locks and keys include:
- You cannot get into your home because the rental provider or agent has changed the locks but not given you a key (see also “‘Quiet enjoyment’ disturbed” on this page)
- Your home was broken into, and your belongings were damaged or stolen because the rental provider did not provide locks for all external doors and windows
Replacement appliances are below standard
By law, if an appliance, fitting or fixture at the property that uses or supplies water, electricity or gas needs to be replaced, the rental provider must make sure the replacement meets a prescribed minimum rating in an efficiency rating system [section 69]. See our page on Utility charges.
You may be able to claim compensation if your rental provider or agent breaches this duty.
You need to show both your loss and its cause to make your claim, so remember to keep evidence of the problem and your costs.
Example
An example of a potential compensation claim for this breach is if you received an unusually high water, gas or electricity bill after the rental provider replaced a broken dishwasher, shower, toilet, tap, air conditioner or heater with one that performs below the prescribed minimum rating.
Property not reasonably clean when you move in
By law, the rental provider must ensure the property is reasonably clean on the day you are due to move in. If it is not, you are not required to move in until the home has been made reasonably clean [section 65].
You may be able to claim compensation if the rental provider or agent breaches this duty.
You need to show both your loss and its cause to make your claim, so remember to keep evidence of the problem and your costs.
Examples
For example, if the property was too dirty for you to move in straight away, you could claim compensation for:
- Any rent you paid until the property was made reasonably clean to allow you to move in
- Other costs and inconveniences you incurred because you could not move in until the property was made reasonably clean, such as having to pay to stay somewhere else
Alternatively, if you moved in but still had to clean the property yourself because the rental provider refused to clean it you could claim for:
- Costs you incurred for cleaning
- Any loss of your use of the property while it was not reasonably clean. See also the section on “‘Quiet enjoyment’ disturbed” on this page
Property not vacant when you move in
By law, the rental provider must ensure the property is vacant on the day you are due to move in [section 65]. The meaning of ‘vacant’ includes that no-one else is living there and that no-one else’s belongings are left there.
You may be able to claim compensation if the rental provider or agent breaches this duty.
You need to show both your loss and its cause to make your claim, so remember to keep evidence of the problem and your costs.
Examples
For example, if someone is still living at the property on the day you are due to move in, or you rented the property unfurnished but could not move in because it was full of the rental provider’s or previous renter’s belonging, you could claim compensation for:
- Any rent you have paid until the property is vacant and you can move in
- Other costs and inconveniences you incurred because you could not move in until the property was vacant, such as having to pay to stay somewhere else
Alternatively, if you moved in but could not use all the property because it was being used to store other people’s belongings, you can ask the rental provider to remove them and could claim compensation for not being able to use, and enjoy, the whole property until this was done.
In another example, if you rented a property with a garage but cannot use it because it is full of the rental provider’s belongings you could claim compensation for not being able to use that part of the property until the time it was cleaned out and made vacant.
See also the section on “‘Quiet enjoyment’ disturbed” on this page.