Since November 2025, a Victorian rental property has had to meet the rental minimum standards before it can be advertised or offered for rent. From 13 October 2026, that changes shape. You will also need to be able to show it did.
What changes on 13 October 2026
Consumer Affairs Victoria has confirmed several changes taking effect on that date. Three of them matter for compliance:
- Record keeping. Rental providers must keep records sufficient to show the property was compliant with the rental minimum standards when it was advertised or offered for rent.
- Gas and electrical safety checks apply to every tenancy. The two-yearly checks are not new, but until now they have only applied where the rental agreement was entered into on or after 29 March 2021. From 13 October 2026 that condition goes. It will not matter when the agreement was signed.
- A gas check before draught proofing. Where a property has gas appliances, a licensed gasfitter must check it within the six months before the work. See below — the detail catches people out.
The properties that have never had a check
The gas and electrical change is easy to read past, because the checks themselves are familiar. The detail that matters is which properties they have not been reaching.
A renter who signed in 2018 and has stayed on the same unrenewed agreement has never triggered the requirement. Neither has anyone else on a pre-March-2021 agreement that was never renewed. Those properties are not behind on their checks in any technical sense. They have simply never been in scope, and on 13 October 2026 they all arrive at once.
That is the population worth identifying now, because it will not appear on any overdue report.
Who checks, and how often
Consumer Affairs Victoria's Renting Taskforce became a permanent part of CAV on 31 August 2026, with expanded resources including more inspectors and lawyers. It is not a temporary programme winding down.
Since 2024 it has assessed more than 2,600 rental property cases, inspected more than 600 properties for minimum standards, issued more than 250 official warnings, and issued 130 infringements totalling more than $900,000. Properties not meeting the minimum standards sit at the top of what it looks for.
Letting a renter move into a property that does not meet the standards is a criminal offence in Victoria, with maximum penalties past $11,000 for an individual and $59,000 for a company. From early 2027 the Victorian Renter Rights Program more than doubles the renters supported each year, to over 25,000.
The shift is from doing the work to proving it
The minimum standards themselves are not new, and neither is the requirement to meet them at the point of advertising. What is new is that meeting them quietly is no longer sufficient. If a property's compliance is questioned, there needs to be a record that answers the question.
That is a different kind of problem from arranging a service. It is a filing problem, and it tends to surface at the worst possible moment: a dispute, a VCAT matter, or a renter asking a reasonable question the agency cannot answer quickly.
What "records sufficient to show" means in practice
Consumer Affairs Victoria has not published a prescribed format. In the absence of one, the sensible reading is that a record should make three things clear without further explanation:
- What was checked, against which standard.
- When it was checked, with a date that sits before the property was advertised.
- Who checked it, and that they were qualified to.
A service report that carries all three is evidence. A calendar entry saying an electrician attended is not.
The gas check before draught proofing, and the trap in it
Sealing a home changes its airflow, and some gas appliances draw air from the room in order to burn safely. That is why the order is fixed in law: where there are gas appliances, a licensed or registered gasfitter must check the property for gas ventilation safety before any draught proofing begins.
The detail that catches people out is the window. The check has to have been done in the six months before the work. A two-year gas safety certificate with 18 months still to run is perfectly valid, and no use for this. A check done in March 2026 does not cover draught proofing carried out in mid-2027, even though the certificate itself does not expire until 2028.
The practical rule is to book the gas check close to the draught proofing rather than whenever the certificate falls due, so the property pays for one visit instead of two.
If the check finds an un-flued or open-flued gas appliance, the property is exempt from draught proofing until that appliance is dealt with. Keep proof that the exemption applies — the obligation to hold evidence covers exemptions too.
Draught proofing itself does not start until 1 July 2027, at a new lease or a conversion to month-to-month. The gas check requirement lands earlier, on 13 October 2026, which is why it is worth knowing now rather than in the middle of scheduling the work.
Assessing the standards themselves
A gas or electrical safety check produces a record for that service. The minimum standards are broader, and since 25 November 2025 an agent has needed a reasonable belief that a property complies before advertising it — which is the belief the 13 October record-keeping obligation asks you to evidence.
That is what Properly is for. Your team captures the property during a visit they are already making, guided by workflows that record what is required. Our assessors review the footage and issue a report against the standards, so the evidence exists before the listing goes up rather than after someone asks for it.
What to do between now and October
Three things are worth doing before the date rather than after it.
- Identify properties on rental agreements entered before 29 March 2021 that have never been renewed. These are the ones coming into scope for the first time.
- Check that compliance records are held somewhere you can retrieve them by property, not scattered across inboxes and portals.
- Look at any property likely to be advertised in late 2026. Its records need to be in order before it is listed, not after.
Every service we complete produces a dated compliance record showing what was checked, when, and by whom. If you are unsure what your portfolio can currently evidence, that is the conversation worth having now.