Hidden Hurdles

A VCOSS Insights Paper: Barriers to rental fairness for family violence victim survivors and ways to dismantle them

VCOSS thanks members of GenWest’s Survivor Advisory Group who shared with us their personal stories, experiences and insights in the development of this work.

Every person is shaped by their history and environment. Many people have endured trauma or hardship. For some, this trauma and its effects continue today. When somebody shares their experiences and insights with VCOSS, they enrich both our understanding of the issues and our recommendations for change.

Thank you for your courage and generosity.

Family violence is a major driver of homelessness. Safe, accessible and affordable housing is central to victim survivors’ safety and long-term recovery.  

This was recognised in the Victorian Government’s 2021 rental reforms, which included a raft of new protections specifically geared to make renting fairer and safer for victim survivors of family violence (see Box 1). 

Many of the 2021 reforms – including, but not limited to, the family violence provisions – were nation-leading at the time of their introduction. They have since been tested by changing market conditions which have necessitated a further tranche of policy, legislative and regulatory reforms, with more to come.1  

These new changes stand to benefit all renters, including specific protections for family violence victim survivors. However, they do not specifically strengthen family violence provisions in the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) – and this is where VCOSS is calling for some focused attention in the next reform and investment package.  

VCOSS’ third annual Renting in Victoria report, published in March 2024, highlighted the need to reassess the effectiveness of the RTA in supporting fair, safe renting for victim survivors.  

That report – based on a survey of more than 300 frontline community sector workers who support vulnerable and disadvantaged renters – found that victim survivors still face critical inequities and barriers in the rental market. These include: 

  • Not having clear and accessible information about their rental rights. 
  • Being subject to discriminatory practices by real estate agents. 
  • Being pursued by rental providers for debts and other liabilities incurred by the person using violence. 
  • Compounding challenges securing and sustaining housing when experiencing family violence. 

This Insights Paper delves deeper into those headline findings on family violence and renting, to elucidate when, how and why the rental market still fails some victim survivors.  

The paper explores whether specific rental issues faced by victim survivors are a product of implementation challenges (for example, barriers to exercising existing rights), or whether they are caused by remaining gaps in legal and regulatory protections. 

Drawing on the insights and experience of community sector workers and people with lived and living experience of family violence2, the primary purpose of the paper is to identify opportunities for the Victorian Government to make further progress towards its ambition of a fair and safe rental market for victim survivors of family violence. The paper identifies legislative and regulatory levers, as well as other opportunities to leverage community sector and industry capability and reach.   

This paper will be socialised with other system stakeholders and system actors – including the broader community sector (beyond organisations with specialist knowledge of family violence and renting) as well as the real estate industry – to help raise awareness about victim survivors’ rights and needs, and drive continuous improvement in the market.  

VCOSS gratefully acknowledges that it has produced this paper with the support of the Victorian Government, as part of a three-year Rental Fairness project funded by Consumer Affairs Victoria through the Victorian Property Fund.  

VCOSS is the peak body for Victoria’s social and community sector, and the state’s premier social advocacy body. We work towards a Victoria free from poverty and disadvantage, where every person and community experiences genuine wellbeing. Read more.

We welcome the opportunity to provide this input.

This work is authorised by VCOSS CEO Juanita Pope.

PRIMARY AUTHOR

Ella Longhurst

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Summary of recommendations

Our Insights Paper provides a blueprint for further reform.  

For each insight or finding, we have identified solutions that the Victorian Government can directly implement or enable, informed by lived experience expertise and deep sector knowledge.   

The recommendations are grouped into four overlapping categories of support that victim survivors need for safe, fair renting. These groupings reflect the overarching structure of the paper. 

Recommendations – Information and education 

1. Provide more targeted and accessible guidance to victim survivors by: 

  • requiring that landlords/real estate agents provide both online access and a hard copy of ‘The Red Book’ to private rental and social housing renters. 
  • providing more ‘digestible’ material – co-designed with victim survivors – on key rental rights, referral pathways to help victim survivors exercise these rights, and the processes for submitting a family violence claim to VCAT. 
  • working with family violence and housing organisations to identify effective settings where easy-to-digest material can be disseminated so victim survivors have ‘light touch’ access to resources that help them understand their rights. 

2. Introduce the right mandatory training3 for private rental estate agents/property managers in tenancy rights and family violence, and trauma-informed practice through:  

  • mandatory ongoing training that explains the rights and responsibilities of landlords and renters under the Residential Tenancies Act and the processes of applying to and navigating VCAT. 
  • mandatory ongoing trauma-informed practice training. 
  • mandatory ongoing training that explains victim-survivors’ existing rights under the Residential Tenancies Act and how to apply a trauma-informed lens when supporting victim survivors in tenancy matters. 
  • ensuring that expert social and community service organisations are involved in the design and provision of this training and receive commensurate funding for this work.  

3. Ensure the social housing workforce has the requisite capacity and capability to respond to the needs of family violence victim survivors by:  

  • Fully implementing the Social Housing Regulation Review Final Report recommendations.  

4. Strengthen the capacity of family violence services and settlement services to support victim-survivors’ awareness of their rights and how to enforce them by: 

  • Leveraging CAV’s information and advice function to provide family violence organisations and settlement services with easy-to-digest information resources on key rental rights, referral pathways for support to help victim survivors exercise these rights, and the processes for submitting a family violence claim to VCAT. 
  • Adequately funding community legal centres (such as Tenants Victoria) to provide regular tenancy law training to family violence organisations and settlement services, and providing practitioners with the necessary information to support victim survivors to access housing justice. 

Recommendations – Systemic reforms 

5. Provide the community sector with the resources it needs to establish, sustain, and scale integrated practice models across the state by: 

  • ensuring that social and community services are funded to enable legal and non-legal services to work collaboratively and flexibly.  
  • ensuring service design principles for tenancy support services enable person-centred practice, including provision of tailored support for complex matters.  
  • ensuring that tenancy support services are funded to provide outreach to educate and build community awareness of renters’ rights.  
  • funding early-intervention, client-centred, and co-located legal services that can proactively resolve legal needs to minimise barriers to housing safety.4  
  • supporting the integration of legal, social work, health, financial, and other community support workers to help victim survivors experiencing housing insecurity to safely avoid homelessness.5 

6. Make further provisions to prevent discrimination and ensure all renters can understand and access their rights by: 

  • including a provision in the standard lease agreement that provides a right to interpreter access where a rental applicant desires one. 
  • including a provision under the Residential Tenancies Act that rental providers must not discriminate against anyone on the basis of having been a victim of family violence. 
  • including a provision under the Residential Tenancies Act that landlords cannot withdraw a rental property offer on the basis that the applicant has used a bond loan. 

7. Improve victim survivors’ legal protections under the Residential Tenancies Act reforms including: 

  • Ensuring that victim survivors are protected by family violence provisions, even where a perpetrator is not a party to the rental agreement.6 
  • Ensuring effective pathways to challenge Notices to Vacate based on family violence.7 
  • Protecting family violence victim survivors from financial loss by resolving technical legal issues connected to tenancy compensation and bond disputes.  
  • Ensuring victim-survivors are not evicted for acts or omissions caused by the family violence perpetrator based on the definition of ‘visitor’.8 9 

Recommendations – Effective dispute resolution 

8. Improve victim survivors’ uptake and experiences of VCAT by: 

  • increasing access to advocacy support for victim survivors navigating a family violence matter at VCAT. 
  • where the family violence perpetrator is not a co-renter and there is no IVO1 in force, ensuring victim survivor renters are protected10 from liability for loss or damage caused by the family violence perpetrator if there is other evidence that they are, or have, been a victim of family violence.  
  • evaluating information-sharing processes that occur during family violence matters to ensure they are trauma informed and uphold victim survivors’ safety. 
  • boosting funding for interpreter services at VCAT. 
  • introducing virtual waiting rooms and hearing parties separately (where appropriate). 
  • providing more training, support and guidance to VCAT, so that victim-survivors’ safety is prioritised in tenancies affected by family violence. 
  • investing in additional dedicated VCAT family violence support staff roles. 

9. Ensure that all victim survivors can have their cases heard at VCAT in a timely manner by: 

  • boosting resources for VCAT 
  • enshrining an obligation on VCAT to resolve bond and compensation under the RTA11 in relation to family violence matters as promptly as possible.  
  • ensuring family violence matters remain within VCAT and are not heard in Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria (RDRV).  

Recommendations – A strong safety net 

  1. Ensure brokerage12 and other support initiatives are an effective ‘stop gap’ to keep victim survivors safely housed by: 
  • increasing funding for family violence Flexible Support Packages to align with current demand levels.  
  • extending the Rental Stress Support Package, which is currently configured as a one-off three-year investment while the government works to boost social, affordable and market housing supply.   
  • providing increased core funding for Consumer Affairs Victoria’s Renter Services program so that: 

a) the capacity of that program aligns with current and projected demand, including demand from victim survivors. 

b) funded services have the necessary resources to provide both early intervention and crisis responses. 

c) funded services have the necessary resources and capability Ito do the job, preventing worker burnout. 

  • providing increased core funding for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s Tenancy Plus program to support social housing renters to sustain their tenancies.  

11. Create an effective safety net for victim survivors by: 

  • setting an ambitious social housing growth target to: 
    a) Catch-up to the national average in a decade. 
    b) Meet total demand by 205113 
  • scoping opportunities to scale up head leasing programs focused on victim-survivors, in collaboration with social and community organisations.  

A note about the structure of this paper 

During our consultations, one victim survivor advocate used the metaphor of ‘hurdles’ to describe their lived experience as a renter. We have used this metaphor to inform the structure of the paper.  

“It’s like it’s a race – you have to jump 50 hurdles before you even start, and then there’s so
many more” – Survivor Advocate

We deeply thank the survivor advocates for bringing their stories and expertise to this paper.

Setting the scene


An overview of new rights for victim survivors introduced through changes to the Residential Tenancies Act in 2021.


In 2021, more than 130 changes to the Residential Tenancies Act came into effect.
These included new rights for victim survivors of family violence.
The high-level changes are summarised as follows:

Ending or creating a new residential rental agreement: A renter who has been or is
experiencing family violence by another party on the existing agreement can apply to VCAT to terminate the rental agreement or terminate the agreement and require the rental
provider to enter into a new agreement. In an application of this kind, VCAT may determine
and apportion liability in respect to loss and damages and utility bills (including unpaid rent) between a victim survivor and a person using violence.

Timing: VCAT must hear an application of the above kind within three business days of it
being filed. Where that is not possible, it will be scheduled for the next available sitting day.

Compensation: In an application of the above kind, there is no right to compensation for
early termination and VCAT may determine existing liabilities for bond, rent, damage and
utilities etc.

Bond: VCAT may apportion liability regarding a bond application in respect to loss and
damage (including unpaid rent) where the applicant is a victim of family violence.

Modifications: There are now some exceptions where a renter does not require the consent
of a rental provider to make specific modifications if they are experiencing family violence.
Some exceptions include locks and security modifications.

Tenancy Database Listings: Protections against ‘blacklisting’ victim survivors if circumstances such as breaches to the residential rental agreement relate to family violence.


Further detail:

Justice Connect Homeless Law in Practice: Family violence provisions

Tenants Victoria: Family Violence Protection Tenancy Kit

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Hurdle One: Important information about existing tenancy laws is not clearly or appropriately conveyed to victim survivors

Key Finding One: Renters’ rights are only effective when people know about them. Victim survivors are not receiving accessible and timely information about their existing rights. This undermines the policy objectives – and market impact – of the RTA’s current family violence provisions. While some barriers to information are broadly applicable to ‘at risk’ cohorts of renters, victim survivors face a unique set of stressors and there are some barriers that are specific to the family violence context. 

The Victorian Government is nation-leading when it comes to enshrining family violence protections in tenancy law.  

However, tenancy law is complicated – and many renters don’t know their rights.  

Laws can only make a tangible difference to people’s safety if victim survivors know what their rights are and how to assert them. Survivor advocates told us that, too often, achieving housing justice relies heavily on individual fact-finding, sense-making and self-advocacy. This is incredibly challenging for victim survivors who are often dealing with multiple stressors such as interactions with police and/or Child Protection, managing safety planning for themselves and their children, and navigating Centrelink. 

Victim survivors experiencing renting challenges can feel as though they are “carrying the burden alone”.14  

In our consultations, survivor advocates and support services told us that information resources for victim survivors need to be improved.  

We heard that information needs to be more accessible15 – disseminated across a variety of everyday settings and in communication formats that are safe for victim survivors, easy to understand, and easy to apply. 

We also heard that more is needed to build the knowledge, skills and confidence of the specialist family violence workforce to make referrals to renter services for more complex tenancy matters. 

One survivor advocate told us she only became aware of the new family violence
protections because she had to read through the Residential Tenancies Act when trying to
remove a person using violence off a lease. The real estate agent provided no advice or
guidance.


A key message we heard is: This is not what effective rental protections should look like in
action.

Key Finding Two: There is a dire lack of family violence training and knowledge about tenancy rights among real estate agents, who might otherwise play a critical role in educating and empowering victim survivors to exercise their rental rights. Our insights gathering confirmed the need to significantly raise the bar when it comes to real estate agents’ knowledge and enforcement of renters’ rights.    

VCOSS strongly supports the Victorian Government’s commitment to introduce mandatory training and licensing for real estate agents, property managers, owners’ corporation managers and conveyancers16. We welcome the recent passage of the Housing Statement Reform Bill in the Victorian Parliament, which gives effect to this policy commitment, although we are aware that implementation will need to be phased and it will be some time before renters experience the full benefits of this specific measure.  

VCOSS’ consultations with survivor advocates and support services affirm the importance of progressing this measure as soon as practicable and involving victim survivors and specialist community services organisations in co-design, alongside industry.  

Victim survivors, specialist family violence organisations, community legal centres and other sector experts have already commenced thinking about what’s needed to ensure this training will drive ethical conduct across the industry and meet the needs of renters.   

“When it comes to housing, there is such a lack of understanding and that makes it so
hard to enforce your rights” – Survivor Advocate

Survivor advocates and VCOSS members told us that, at present:

Have a demonstrated track record of success in delivering training on the RTA, including
an existing trainer/community legal education workforce – such as Tenants Victoria.

  • Most real estate agents do not know the existing rights for victim survivors under the
    Residential Tenancies Act. Real estate agents are often people’s first point of call when
    attempting to address a tenancy issue, so this lack of knowledge serves as a barrier to
    victim survivors understanding, exercising and enforcing their rights.
  • Most real estate agents are not adequately trained in family violence and traumainformed approaches, which often gives rise to distress for victim survivors, can
    compound pre-existing trauma, exacerbates victim survivors’ risk and compromise their
    safety.


To get fair, safe housing outcomes for victim survivors, gaps must be filled in real estate
agents’ accreditation and ongoing professional development requirements.


The type of training that real estate agents receive – and who delivers it – also matters.


A key message to the Victorian Government from victim survivors and community sector
experts is that mandatory training should be provided by tenancy advocacy bodies who:

  • Share the Victorian Government’s consumer policy objectives
  • Are committed to supporting renters to fully actualise their legal rights
  • Have expert working knowledge of the RTA
  • Have existing capability in translating and tailoring technical legal and regulatory
    information for frontline workforces
  • Have a demonstrated track record of success in delivering training on the RTA, including
    an existing trainer/community legal education workforce – such as Tenants Victoria.

“Agents automatically go to this reoccurring checklist which works in the financial
interests of the landlord. They often don’t take anything else into consideration – because
they don’t know what else to consider” – VCOSS member representative, TAAP worker

Key finding three: We need to build workforce capability in the social housing system, not just the private rental market. Staff working in social housing also need access to ongoing professional development that strengthens their understanding and capacity to embed contemporary trauma-informed practice. The Social Housing Regulatory Review Final Report provides a roadmap to uplift workforce capability and embed a culture of ongoing professional development. The social housing sector is keen to co-design and progress implementation with the Victorian Government.  

Currently, social housing in Victoria is highly targeted to applicants in greatest need. An increasing proportion of people in the system have complex health, social, and personal needs and often face multiple forms of structural disadvantage. As evidenced by the Victorian Housing Register, there is high social housing demand for victim survivors. As of September 2024, there are currently 4,28617 victim survivors waiting for appropriate social housing18. 

The high proportion of victim survivors in social housing reflects a critical need to ensure social housing provider staff are able to respond effectively to victim survivors’ tenancy matters.  

The Social Housing Regulatory Review final report identified there is a need for social housing providers to ensure their staff can access and undertake ongoing professional development, so they are better equipped with the skills they need to support social housing residents and also promote workforce wellbeing19. VCOSS consultations with survivor advocates and VCOSS members underscores the importance of family violence training and trauma-informed practice training to be prioritised when embedding a culture of ongoing professional development across the social housing sector.  

Survivor advocates and VCOSS members told us that at present: 

  • Further work needs to be done to ensure social housing provider staff are working with residents in a manner that’s trauma informed. We heard examples of social housing providers not being equipped with the right information to provide appropriate referrals to victim survivors and/or giving incorrect information to victim survivors related to their renter rights such as rent arrears, lease termination, and safety modifications.  
  • Family violence training is critical – but there are workforce capacity barriers which must also be addressed to ensure there is the infrastructure of support long term. Alongside a need for mandatory family violence training, VCOSS members highlighted that social housing’s operating context differs greatly to the private market, and there are key workforce capacity barriers which need to be addressed concurrently to mandatory training. VCOSS members highlighted how the Social Housing Regulatory Review final report provides a blueprint to build workforce capacity and orient the social housing system to one where tenants are at the centre. 

“We are housing the most marginalised [members] of our community … we need far more
resources into the support side of it.” – VCOSS member

Key Finding four: Frontline workers in specialist family violence and settlement services organisations are well-placed to deliver information to victim survivors about their rental rights, and provide support to safely and confidently assert these rights. But while these services are motivated to help victim survivors in the rental space, they need support, resources and training to build their capacity to do so. 

Workers in specialist family violence services are highly qualified professionals who understand the range of challenges victim survivors face. This extends to victim-survivors’ housing challenges, which are a common intersection with experiences of family violence.20  

InTouch, a statewide specialist service providing family violence support to migrant and refugee communities, identified that 62 percent of their clients are either homeless or at risk of homelessness.21 This is symptomatic of the common link between family violence and housing insecurity. It makes sense to break this link by leveraging the capacity of services that work directly with victim survivors – especially those, such as recently arrived migrants, who face compounding, systemic barriers to understanding and exercising their rights.  

However, VCOSS members told us that frontline staff who work with victim survivors are generally given little to no training or information about the Residential Tenancies Act or about VCAT processes.  

“The system isn’t working because practitioners often aren’t aware of how dire the rental
market is, and there isn’t a thorough understanding or discussion with clients about tenancy law. It is engrained at an intake level how we can get the victim survivor into refuge” – VCOSS member, specialist family violence practitioner.

Recommendations – Information and education 

  1. Provide more targeted and accessible guidance to victim survivors. 
  1. Introduce the right mandatory training for estate agents/property managers in tenancy rights and family violence, and trauma-informed practice. 
  1. Fully implement the Social Housing Regulation Review Final Report recommendations, so that the social housing workforce has the requisite capacity and capability to respond to the needs of family violence victim survivors. 
  1. Strengthen the capacity of specialist family violence services and settlement services to support victim-survivors’ awareness of their rights and how to enforce them.

1. Provide more targeted and accessible guidance to victim survivors. 

Consumer Affairs Victoria should: 

  • Require that landlords/real estate agents provide both online access and a hard copy of ‘The Red Book’ to private rental and social housing tenants.22 While we note that CAV’s project to convert the Red Book to an online resource is intended to reduce regulatory burden on landlords and agents,23 a purely online approach will not meet the needs of many victim survivors. A hard copy of the resource provides tenants with a physical roadmap of their rights, which can be particularly vital to avoid leaving ‘digital footprints’. Victim survivors may also have their access to technology restricted by people using violence. Furthermore, family violence does not discriminate by age, and the digital divide may impact older victim-survivors’ ability to understand and access online resources and services.24 As further changes are made to the RTA, pamphlets and updates should be provided to tenants and be translated to ensure people who have no or limited English proficiency can understand their rights.  
  • Provide more ‘digestible’ material – co-designed with victim survivors – on key rental rights, referral pathways to help victim survivors exercise these rights, and the processes for submitting a family violence claim to VCAT. Renters should not have to pore over the Residential Tenancies Act to figure out their rights. This is especially untenable for victim survivors of family violence who are managing safety and risk. Survivor advocates and support services consistently told us that there is a lack of easy-to-understand information for renters to access regarding their rights – particularly for victim survivors who have limited or no English proficiency. Information must be available in a variety of languages and be developed in renumerated co-design with victim survivors with lived experience of housing insecurity. Some ‘easy-to-digest’ resources suggested by survivor advocates and support services included:   
  • Fridge magnets  
  • Simple flow charts regarding support pathways and steps to exercising rental rights (maximum of two pages) 
  • Pamphlets and posters provided in easy English and in-language (translated) in places/settings safely and easily accessed by victim survivors. 
  • Work with specialist family violence and housing organisations to identify effective settings where easy-to-digest material can be disseminated so victim survivors have ‘light touch’ access to understanding their rights. As part of taking the burden off victim survivors, survivor advocates and support services emphasised the need to provide accessible material across a variety of settings to help build community knowledge about renters’ rights and how to exercise them. Settings could include libraries, hairdressers, general practitioners and supermarkets. Renters are everywhere – we should be giving them information wherever they can access it.  
     

2. Introduce the right mandatory training for estate agents/property managers in tenancy rights and family violence, and trauma-informed practice. 

Real estate agents should: 

  • Be mandated to attend ongoing training – such as the training offerings provided by Tenants Victoria – that explains the rights and responsibilities of landlords and renters under the Residential Tenancies Act and the processes of applying to and navigating VCAT. Subject matter that should be included in real estate agent training on family violence and tenancy law includes:  
  • Victim survivors’ rights to make safety modifications to the property (such as installation of cameras and change of locks).  
  • The process to support victim survivors to make changes or end their rental agreement due to family violence25 and the VCAT process for these types of applications.   
  • Training on the rights of a renter (who is a victim survivor of family violence) against claims to repair damages or cover costs that are a result of a family violence incident.  
  • Understanding property managers’/real estate agents’ entry rights and responsibilities for entry because of proceedings regarding family violence.  
  • The rules for showing the property to buyers or lenders when the renter is a victim survivor of family violence.  
  • How property managers/real estate agents can support renters who are victim survivors of family violence, such as through referral pathways to financial counselling, tenancy advocacy, and specialist family violence support. 
  • Be mandated to attend ongoing trauma-informed practice training, such as the Blue Knot training. 
  • Be mandated to attend ongoing training that explains victim-survivors’ existing rights under the Residential Tenancies Act and how to apply a trauma-informed lens when supporting victim survivors in tenancy matters. This training should cover:  
  • The dynamics and drivers of family violence with an intersectional lens 
  • How to identify family violence and confidently apply a trauma-informed approach to discussing family violence with clients 
  • Understanding how family violence intersects with the RTA 
  • Understanding how to avoid collusion with clients using violence 
  • Identifying relevant services and making appropriate referrals to clients to support them to access legal support, case management, and recovery needs.  

An example of such training is the ‘Family Violence Foundations’ training provided by Women’s Legal Service.  

The Victorian Government should: 

  • Ensure that social and community service organisations who design and provide training to real estate agents receive commensurate funding to deliver it. While there is appetite for the sector to deliver these training modules to real estate agents, it is contingent on the Victorian Government providing the appropriate funding – social and community sector organisations should not have to absorb the cost of delivering training to real estate agents on this subject matter. 

3. Fully implement the Social Housing Regulation Review Final Report recommendations, so that the social housing workforce has the requisite capacity and capability to respond to the needs of family violence victim survivors.  

VCOSS is pleased to see the Victorian Government has accepted Recommendation 3.11 in the Social Housing Regulatory Review Final Report in full. This recommendation requires providers to embed a culture of ongoing professional development. VCOSS identifies there is an opportunity to bring a greater family violence lens to this workforce recommendation, which should be done through partnering and drawing on the expertise of the social and community sector as the Victorian Government progresses the detailed design of the Social Housing Regulation Review reform package.  

However, as identified by VCOSS members, training and professional development is one mechanism in ensuring victim survivors receive trauma-informed support from social housing providers. There are critical workforce capacity barriers which need to be addressed to ensure there is a sustainable workforce to support social housing residents. VCOSS reiterates the importance of the Social Housing Regulation Review Final Report and recommended solutions to address key workforce capacity barriers.  

The Victorian Government should:  

  • Work with social and community sector stakeholders to ensure family violence training and trauma-informed practice is prioritised in the implementation of Recommendation 3.11 of the Social Housing Regulation Review Final Report.  
  • Make sustained investment in resources (e.g. practice guidance, tools, training) to ensure continuous quality improvement across social housing providers.  
  • Fully implement the Social Housing Regulatory Review Final Report recommendations. 

4. Strengthen the capacity of specialist family violence services and settlement services to support victim-survivors’ awareness of their rights and how to enforce them. 

Consumer Affairs Victoria should:  

  • Provide specialist family violence organisations and settlement services with easy-to-digest material on key rental rights, referral pathways for support to help victim survivors exercise these rights, and the processes for submitting a family violence claim to VCAT. This material should be available across many language groups and can then be accessible for practitioners to refer to and disseminate to clients where appropriate.  

Additionally, the Victorian Government should fund social and community organisations to build sector capacity of the Residential Tenancies Act, how family violence intersects with tenancy law, and knowledge of housing reforms by: 

  • Funding expert community legal centres to provide regular tenancy law training to specialist family violence organisations and settlement services, providing practitioners with the necessary information to support victim survivors to access housing justice. This training should help inform what key information specialist family violence practitioners and settlement services should be collecting from victim survivors to inform housing options, provide an overview of victim-survivors’ rights under the Residential Tenancies Act, the purpose of VCAT, and the processes for submitting a family violence application to VCAT.  

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Hurdle Two: Systems and supports to help victim survivors achieve housing justice are often siloed, confusing and inequitable 

Key Finding Four: To achieve long-term housing justice outcomes, victim survivors need access to tailored and targeted integrated practice models that can effectively ‘wrap around’ the client as needed.  

VCOSS’ annual ‘Renting in Victoria’ survey tells us that people do not experience renting challenges as singular issues. Effectively addressing these challenges means taking account of their context. For example, repair matters may come up in the context of family violence case work, or financial counsellors may identify economic abuse when assisting a client to manage debts.  

A headline message from VCOSS’ submission to the CAV-Funded Renter Services review was that integrated practice models that knit together legal and non-legal services can drive better renter outcomes and enable more efficient use of resources.  

We need intensive multidisciplinary partnerships that enable people’s legal and non-legal needs, and the right supports, to be more easily identified and then ‘wrapped around’ victim survivors to ensure they can achieve long-term housing justice outcomes. It is important that access to legal assistance is factored into service design to ensure people can access their legal rights and help minimise further victimisation.  

The benefits of establishing, sustaining, and scaling integrated practice models include: 

  • Providing victim survivors with a continuity of support as their housing and/or family violence circumstances change.  
  • Providing targeted and intensive support for victim survivors with multiple and complex needs. 
  • Ensuring victim survivors have access to legal and non-legal supports which provide a tailored support system which helps them to navigate complex tenancy matters. 
  • Providing more options for early intervention to effectively support victim survivors, such as early legal support that prevents rather than responds to crises and getting access to brokerage to assist in sustaining a tenancy.  
  • Providing more long-term recovery supports – for example, VCOSS members articulated the critical role financial counselling can play in assisting victim survivors to gain financial independence and stable housing.  

The impacts of family violence are intense and far reaching – so we need the support to be.  

Key Finding Five: The process of securing a private rental is extremely challenging – and there continues to be extensive undocumented discrimination. 

In March 2024, the Victorian Government announced the establishment of a new Rental Taskforce to “crack down” on rental providers and real estate agents who do the wrong thing. In its first six months of operation, the Taskforce issued more than 40 fines totalling $450,000.26 A more recent stakeholder update indicated that this had jumped to 67 infringements issued and more than $600,000 in fines.27 

While this provides Consumer Affairs Victoria with strong regulatory, compliance and accountability ‘muscle’, insights from frontline community services workers and survivor advocates underscore the breadth and depth of the challenge for the Regulator. VCOSS was told that discriminatory practices continue to be rife amongst real estate agents, including: 

  • Withdrawing rental offers because a client is using a DFFH bond loan.   
  • Rejecting a rental applicant because they have attached a family violence support letter to their application.  
  • Rejecting a rental application from a victim survivor because they are a recently-arrived migrant and do not have a “sufficient” rental history in Australia.  
  • Rejecting a victim-survivor’s rental application because of damages to a previous property incurred by a person using violence.  
  • Favouring rental applicants with higher incomes.  

Furthermore, VCOSS members told us that victim survivors who have limited or no English proficiency face compounding barriers to understanding and exercising their rights, even though, as the Commonwealth Department of Homeland Affairs notes, “real estate agents are obliged to make sure that clients properly understand details of transactions, particularly when entering into legally binding agreements, such as tenancies and sales contracts, or when explaining tenancy obligations”28. Two key issues are: 

  • Limited information on renters’ rights that is accessible and appropriately translated  

Limited uptake of interpreter services across real estate agents, despite these being available to the industry at no cost through the Commonwealth-funded Translating and Interpreting Service.  

Recommendations

Consult communities about what matters to them by:

  • Holding in-person sessions at trusted community settings.
  • Ensuring everyone can participate including people experiencing disadvantage.

Key Finding Six: Reforms under the Residential Tenancies Act are a promising start in protecting victim-survivors’ rental rights – but there are persistent gaps that mean not all victim survivors are benefitting.  

Recommendations

Consult communities about what matters to them by:

  • Holding in-person sessions at trusted community settings.
  • Ensuring everyone can participate including people experiencing disadvantage.

Victoria has shown it is genuinely committed to using legislative and regulatory levers, and funding renter services, to strengthen victim-survivors’ safety in the rental housing system.  

However, frontline services – and victim survivors themselves – have identified the need for additional reform, as some people who use violence have found ways to exploit and manipulate systems and processes to control, threaten or harass a current or former partner.   

We heard that there are improvements that can be made to the laws to ensure victim survivors aren’t falling through the cracks. For example, we were told that victim survivors are still facing challenges related to: 

  • Accessing fair outcomes if the person using violence is not on the lease.  
  • Apportioning liability of financial losses suffered by the rental provider to the person using violence, if such issues relate to tenancy compensation and bond disputes.  

Having to ‘keep the lease on foot’ to remain protected under the new RTA clause ‘Ending or creating a new residential rental agreement’. This is particularly challenging if a victim survivor has to leave the rental property to mitigate their risk.

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Hurdle Three: Dispute resolution can be intimidating, distressing and retraumatising for victim survivors 

Key Finding Seven: Family violence awareness within VCAT has significantly improved post-reforms – but VCAT is still a difficult and intimidating process for many victim survivors to engage with. There are further opportunities to improve VCAT’s trauma-informed practice and ensure victim survivors are supported effectively.  

VCOSS members told us they have noticed significant positive changes within VCAT since reforms were made under the Residential Tenancies Act.  

However, for victim survivors facing tenancy issues, VCAT continues to be a significantly under-utilised mechanism.  

Reasons for this include:  

  • Victim survivors may not know they have to apply to VCAT to address certain issues. For example, we heard about cases where victim survivors were unaware that they had to go to VCAT to be removed from a lease and were under the impression that emailing their real estate agent was sufficient (please refer to recommendations related to education and awareness).  
  • Text Box 2, TextboxVCAT can be intimidating to engage with. For many victim survivors, the very idea of an administrative tribunal is inherently legalistic, opaque and intimidating. There are opportunities to reduce the anxiety associated with going to VCAT. Some examples include enabling family violence workers or housing advocates to prepare all the necessary information for a VCAT matter (with the victim-survivor’s consent), having an advocate and/or support person on the day to support the victim survivor in their hearing, and providing post-hearing support if there are any matters the victim survivor needs to follow up about. 
  • Many victim survivors don’t want to apply for an IVO. This may be due to valid fears of exacerbating the victim-survivor’s risk. Victim survivors may also be reluctant to involve police, which is a particularly common concern for communities who have experienced ongoing police harm, such as culturally and racially marginalised communities and First Nations people.  
  • Further consideration is needed regarding what information gets shared with the party using violence during VCAT matters. VCOSS members told us that the option for VCAT to serve the person using violence is an effective measure. However, they stressed that, while procedural fairness is critical, information should be redacted if it could compromise the safety of the victim survivor. For example, we heard about a case where a victim survivors’ income was shared with the person using violence.  
  • Limitations in interpreter access within VCAT. VCOSS members told us of cases where the dialect of the language group victim-survivors’ spoke was not offered by the interpreter services at VCAT. These language barriers exclude victim survivors from effectively understanding and exercising their rights.  
  • Victim survivors may find it retraumatising or distressing if they must hear or see the person using violence during a VCAT matter. This can extend to remote hearings, where victim survivors don’t have to see the person using violence but may be distressed to hear their voice. 
  • Text Box 2, TextboxThere are opportunities to further strengthen VCAT members’ family violence awareness. While there have been significant improvements in VCAT members’ understanding of family violence35, we also heard in consultations that ongoing capacity building is required to ensure VCAT orders are made with a full understanding of the complexities and nuances of family violence.  

Key Finding Eight: There have been improvements to VCAT wait times with the new reforms. However, further work is needed to ensure all victim survivors have their cases heard in a timely manner.   

VCOSS welcomes the changes under the Residential Tenancies Act that establish the right for family violence cases to be heard within three business days, or on the next available sitting day at VCAT. This reform reflects the Victorian Government’s understanding of the urgency with which family violence matters must be heard.  

However, VCOSS members told us that VCAT wait times remain a persistent barrier for victim survivors.  

This is because, while initial family violence hearings are regularly being heard in a more timely manner since the reforms, cases that are adjourned and require a second hearing are often subject to extensive delays. For example, we heard of a case where the second hearing took six months – taking a huge toll on the mental and financial wellbeing of the victim survivor.  

Wait times can exacerbate risk for victim survivors. To ensure rental rights can be exercised, we need a system that responds quickly and effectively in all family violence matters.  

The establishment of Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria will divert a range of simple matters from VCAT and should create greater capacity in VCAT to deal with complex matters in a more timely manner – including family violence matters.  

A key message from the sector is that, while it has expressed strong in-principal support for the new dispute resolution body, it continues to emphasise that: 

  • VCAT is the most appropriate setting for family violence related matters to be heard and resolved; and  
  • Family violence matters should be deemed out of scope for RDRV.36  

The sector also notes that while RDRV will alleviate some of the pressure on VCAT, to ensure victim survivors have access to prompt and fair dispute resolution pathways, VCAT must be adequately funded to ensure complex cases are managed in a timely and trauma-informed way. Victim survivors also need greater access to advocacy support and legal assistance when navigating VCAT.  

Recommendations – Effective dispute resolution 

  1. Improve victim survivors’ uptake and experiences of VCAT. 
  1. Ensure that all victim survivors can have their cases heard at VCAT in a timely manner. 
  1. Improve victim survivors’ uptake and experiences of VCAT 

The Victorian Government should:  

  • Increase access to advocacy support and legal assistance for victim survivors navigating a family violence matter at VCAT. This will relieve some of the pressure on victim survivors, who should not have to compile extensive information by themselves in order to effectively engage with VCAT.  
  • Where the family violence perpetrator is not a co-renter and there is no IVO37 in force, ensure victim survivor renters are protected38 from liability for loss or damage caused by the family violence perpetrator if there is other evidence that they are, or have, been a victim of family violence. Other evidence could include a letter from a specialist family violence practitioner or other evidence identified39 in the Residential Tenancies regulations. Currently, under the RTA, a victim survivor will be held liable for loss or damage caused by a family violence perpetrator who is not a co-renter where there is no IVO, family violence safety notice or recognised non-local DVO in force.40 Victim survivors may be unable or unwilling to get an IVO out on a person using violence because of a range of systemic barriers and risk factors. The reliance on IVOs is a significant obstacle preventing many victim survivors from applying to, or defending a claim at, VCAT.  
  • Evaluate information-sharing processes that occur during family violence matters to ensure they are trauma informed and uphold victim survivors’ safety. Victim survivors’ safety is paramount. Any information that could compromise victim survivors’ safety should be appropriately redacted if it is shared with the person using violence during a VCAT matter.  
  • Boost funding for interpreter services at VCAT. Everyone deserves to have their voice heard, and all victim survivors need to be able to understand and exercise their rights. This can only occur if the list of languages offered by VCAT interpreter services matches community need.  
  • Where appropriate, introduce virtual waiting rooms and hear parties separately. This option to spare victim survivors’ distress is like the approach used in Fair Work Commission conciliation: all parties meet at the start of the hearing but are then placed in separate rooms to negotiate. This can limit a victim survivor’s need to interact with the person using violence, reducing the harms and distress a VCAT hearing may cause.  
  • Provide more training, support and guidance to VCAT, so that victim-survivors’ safety is prioritised in tenancies affected by family violence. This should include further training for VCAT members and staff on family violence, how it presents, and its impacts on victim-survivor renters and their tenancies.  
  • Invest in additional dedicated VCAT family violence support staff roles. We heard from many VCOSS members that the family violence practitioner role in VCAT has been incredibly successful but that there is a need for further investment in this space. 
  1. Ensure that all victim survivors can have their cases heard at VCAT in a timely manner   

The Victorian Government should:  

  • Boost resources for VCAT to ensure family violence matters are fast-tracked.  
  • Enshrine an obligation on VCAT to resolve bond and compensation41 in relation to family violence matters as promptly as possible. An obligation that supports victim survivors who want their matter expedited can be especially helpful if another party is slowing the process down –through deliberate delay or bureaucratic apathy. This will help to ensure that bond is repaid more quicky to victim survivors so they can obtain and sustain safe and secure housing and help victim-survivors move forward without the burden of ongoing VCAT proceedings. Where the family violence perpetrator is a co-renter, it will also ensure that the victim survivor does not have to be part of a VCAT process involving a family violence perpetrator longer than necessary. 

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Hurdle Four: In the current housing crisis, many victim survivors cannot afford to be safe at home 

Key Finding Nine: Brokerage and rental stress supports are becoming increasingly critical as our housing crisis balloons.  

Too often, victim survivors don’t have the financial capacity to stay in their current home independently. The rental crisis and cost-of-living pressures are making this situation more prevalent and more acute. 

Text Box 2, TextboxThe family violence support system should be oriented towards supporting victim survivors to stay in their home, if that’s their choice.  

Effective brokerage and support initiatives provided by the Victorian Government as a financial ‘stop gap’ must be part of the solution to keep victim survivors safely housed. 

However, it is important to recognise that these supports only provide short-term relief and cannot keep victim survivors safely housed in the long term. This underscores the need for ambitious social housing growth targets and turbo-charged investment in social housing construction.  

Key Finding Ten: Many victim survivors face economic hardship, as well as systemic barriers to securing long-term housing. In an unaffordable housing market that favours higher income earners, they are left with few options.  

The costs of family violence are far-reaching. Many victim survivors suffer economic abuse exacerbated by cost-of-living pressures, as well as facing the systemic barriers of an inaccessible housing market.  

There is minimal affordable housing in the private rental market, with only three rentals across the country affordable for a single person receiving the JobSeeker payment.42 

And the average wait time for public rental housing for victim survivors is 19.5 months.43 

Text Box 2, TextboxIt is the perfect storm.  

The Government needs to ensure an effective safety net for victim survivors, who will otherwise be locked out of safe, fair housing. 

Recommendations – A strong safety net 

  1. Ensure brokerage and support initiatives are an effective ‘stop gap’ to keep victim survivors safely housed. 
  1. Create an effective safety net for victim survivors. 
     
  1. Ensure brokerage and support initiatives are an effective ‘stop gap’ to keep victim survivors safely housed.  

The Victorian Government should: 

  • Increase funding for family violence Flexible Support Packages44 to align with current demand levels.  
  • Extend the Rental Stress Support Package, which is currently configured as a one-off three-year investment while the government works to boost social, affordable and market housing supply.   
  • Provide increased core funding for Consumer Affairs Victoria’s Renter Services program so that: 
  • the capacity of that program aligns with current and projected demand, including demand from victim survivors. 
  • funded services have the necessary resources to provide both early intervention and crisis responses. 
  • funded services have the necessary resources and capability Ito do the job, preventing worker burnout. 
  • Provide increased core funding for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s Tenancy Plus program to support social housing renters to sustain their tenancies.  
  1. Create an effective safety net for victim survivors. 

The Victorian Government should: 

  • Set an ambitious social housing growth target – above and beyond current commitments. VCOSS, as part of the Victorian Housing Peaks Alliance, recently commissioned SGS Economics and Planning to provide data insights about demand for social housing. From this modelling, the Victorian Housing Peaks Alliance has determined that45: 
  • In order to catch up to the national average of 4.5 percent social housing stock46, Victoria needs to build 7,990 new social housing dwellings every year for the next 10 years. This will put us on a pathway towards meeting future demand, which will be an extra 377,000 social housing dwellings by 2051 to meet projected total demand for low-income Victorians. 
  • As a projected bare minimum, victim survivors will require at least 83,000 new social homes by 205147. 

The lack of social housing is a driving factor in the interrelationship between family violence and homelessness. We need to build our way out of this co-occurrence.  

Scope opportunities to scale up head leasing programs focused on victim-survivors, in collaboration with social and community organisations. These programs, which enable social and community service organisations to take out a lease and sublet the property to a victim survivor at a discounted rent, can assist victim survivors to secure or sustain a private rental independently. In the short to medium-term, head leasing could be utilised as a tenancy stabilisation mechanism, or to assist victim survivors in securing an alternative, safe private rental.    

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Appendix A: methodology

This insights paper has been researched and written as part of VCOSS’ Rental Fairness work
funded by Consumer Affairs Victoria through the Victorian Property Fund.
The purpose of this three-year grant is to support education and awareness related to
renters’ rights, and provide community sector insights to help inform the Victorian
Government’s rental fairness agenda.
From October 2024 to March 2025, VCOSS developed this report through:

Consultations with a cross-section of community sector organisations who support
victim survivors who rent. These consultations enabled a deeper dive into the specific
challenges and solutions varying social and community sector workers have identified
through their specialised work with victim survivors. Organisations who participated
represent a range of types of community organisations such as tenancy support
advocates, community legal centres, specialist family violence workers, and
settlement services. VCOSS undertook recruitment for this paper through a series of
channels including direct email and call outs in our various communication channels
with members.

Desktop research and literature review

A 90-minute workshop with five family violence victim survivor advocates who have
or currently rent in Victoria. The workshop focused on key areas related to rental
fairness and reform; including education, dispute resolution, and compounding
systemic barriers. This focus group provided the report with firsthand understanding
of how the family violence reforms are being tested in current market conditions.

VCOSS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country, and we pay respect to Elders and Ancestors. Our business is conducted on sovereign, unceded Aboriginal land. The VCOSS offices are located on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung land in central Naarm.