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Disability Homes · VictoriaChecked 9 October 2026
The resident’s folder

Disability homes in Victoria: the resident’s folder

Specialist disability accommodation, or SDA, is housing for people with very high support needs or extreme functional impairment. In Victoria, SDA residency agreements have been part of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 since July 2019, and Consumer Affairs Victoria regulates them under the state’s renting laws. This folder sets those rules out from the resident’s side, one tab at a time. It is published by Dotto from the official sources listed at the foot of each page.

General information about Victorian law, not legal advice. The official place to check is Consumer Affairs Victoria’s pages on specialist disability accommodation. Changes to Victoria’s SDA rules began on 1 July 2026; the agreement tab lists them.

The five tabs

A resident’s papers tend to gather in five places: the agreement, the provider’s visits, repairs, notices, and money. Each divider below opens a guide to Victoria’s rules for that part of the folder, written for a resident and for the family and support people beside them.

  1. 1 · AgreementThe SDA residency agreementConsumer Affairs Victoria says it should be entered into or established before you move in.
  2. 2 · EntryWhen the provider can come inWith notice, between 8 am and 6 pm on any day but a public holiday: 48 hours, 24 hours or 7 days ahead, depending on the reason. Or at a time you agree.
  3. 3 · RepairsRepairsConsumer Affairs Victoria says an urgent repair must be fixed immediately or, if that cannot happen, as soon as possible and within 2 days.
  4. 4 · NoticesNotices, and when a residency endsA provider’s notice to vacate must give a moving date at least 90 days after the notice is given.
  5. 5 · MoneyRent and your support providerNo bond under an SDA residency agreement, and rent never required more than one month ahead.
A row of coloured card folders, blue, yellow, red, green and cream, each with a numbered index running down its edge and an elastic band holding it shut
Five colours, numbered dividers, an elastic to keep it all together. Photo by PIRO4D on Pixabay

Two kinds of agreement, and the choice is yours

An SDA dwelling can be lived in under an SDA residency agreement, which carries more protection, or under a standard residential tenancy agreement. Consumer Affairs Victoria says the choice belongs to you rather than the provider, and that it matters to understand the difference before choosing the standard kind.

Among the differences it describes: under an SDA residency agreement you pay no bond, you can end the agreement whenever you choose, with a notice of intention to vacate to your provider, and the rent cannot go up more than once every 6 months. On rent rises it runs the other way: Consumer Affairs Victoria’s comparison of the two agreements says that under a standard residential tenancy agreement the rent can go up every 12 months. The agreement tab sets out how each kind is signed.

Three words the rules lean on

SDA resident
A person with a disability who gets, or could get, funded daily independent living support, and who lives or plans to live in an SDA dwelling under an SDA residency agreement or a residential tenancy agreement.
SDA provider
Whoever owns or holds the lease of an SDA dwelling, where it is let, or is to be let, to an SDA resident under either kind of agreement.
SDA dwelling
Either a dwelling enrolled as SDA with the NDIA, or a permanent home where one or more residents with a disability get accommodation and daily independent living support funded by a specified entity or program.

Help that sits beside the folder

Many residents already have a support person. Consumer Affairs Victoria names a daily independent living support provider, a guardian, a carer, an advocate, a family member or a friend as examples, and says a support person can help you understand your rights under your SDA residency agreement. If you would like one and have nobody, your provider must help you find one, and that person cannot work for your provider.

Consumer Affairs Victoria also runs an SDA support line on 1300 40 43 19, open 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, except public holidays.

About this folder

Disability Homes is a guide to living in specialist disability accommodation in Victoria, published by Dotto. It reports what Victoria’s Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and Consumer Affairs Victoria say, and the national NDIS rules where they reach into the home. Residential tenancy laws are made by each state and territory, so everything here about agreements, entry, repairs and notices is Victoria’s law. Nothing on these pages is advice about a particular home; Consumer Affairs Victoria publishes the rules each tab reports.