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Tab 1 · Agreement · Victoria

The SDA residency agreement, in Victoria

In Victoria, your SDA provider must either enter into an SDA residency agreement with you, or work with you to establish one, before you move into the SDA dwelling. The choice between that agreement and an ordinary residential rental agreement is yours, not the provider’s.

General information about Victorian law, not legal advice. The official place to check is Consumer Affairs Victoria’s page on starting an agreement with your SDA provider.

Section 498F

What the Act asks of the provider

Section 498F of Victoria’s Residential Tenancies Act 1997 fixes the order of things. Before you occupy the dwelling, the provider has to do one of two things: enter into an SDA residency agreement with you, or work with you under section 498G to establish one. An agreement that is entered into is one you sign. One that is established counts as made once the provider has complied with section 498G and has given you the agreement as section 498H requires.

The section has a single exception: it does not bind a provider who is also an SDA resident and the only person living in the dwelling. Consumer Affairs Victoria’s own advice to residents is plain: do it before you move in.

Step by step

Two ways in: entering into, or establishing

Consumer Affairs Victoria describes each path as a short run of steps. A selection of them, as its page gives them:

Entering into an agreement

  1. The provider takes you through the agreement and its information statement, and has to explain every right and duty you hold in a way that makes sense to you.
  2. If you have no support person, the provider can ask someone to support you. That person cannot be one of the provider’s workers.
  3. You both sign. At least 7 days must separate the day you were given the information statement from the signing.

Establishing an agreement

  1. The provider explains the agreement and information statement, both orally and in writing where that is reasonable.
  2. If it would help you, the provider must also give your support person a copy and explain it to them. If you have no support person, the provider can help find one who does not work for them.
  3. The provider signs. At least 7 days must separate the day you and your support person were given the information statement from that signature.

Which path suits which resident is set out on Consumer Affairs Victoria’s page on starting an agreement.

Your choice

Choosing between the two agreements

An SDA dwelling can be occupied under an SDA residency agreement, which carries extra protection, or under a standard residential tenancy agreement. Consumer Affairs Victoria describes the SDA residency agreement as made for SDA and as giving you greater protection. It also says the decision is yours rather than the provider’s, and that you should understand the difference before you choose a standard rental agreement.

If you do choose a residential rental agreement, the steps Consumer Affairs Victoria lists include two of the provider’s own: handing a copy of the signed agreement to you and your support person within 14 days of signing, and giving you the Renters Guide on or before the day you move in. And if you signed a residential rental agreement but your SDA provider never gave you the required information statement, you can end the agreement.

The form

What can be added to the agreement

Your provider has to use the correct agreement form from Consumer Affairs Victoria’s website. It cannot draft an agreement of its own. It can add extra terms, but only ones that are not banned and that take none of your legal rights away; a term that does is invalid.

After signing

Who is told once the agreement exists

Within 14 days of an agreement being entered into or established, the provider must give the Director written notice of it, meaning the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria. The Act sets a penalty of 60 penalty units for that duty. The notice has to give these details:

  • the provider’s name and contact details;
  • the address of the SDA dwelling;
  • the term of the agreement.
The NDIS side

A service agreement as well

The tenancy agreement is Victoria’s. The NDIS adds a second paper: the NDIA says that where you have SDA supports, you and your provider must make a written service agreement. The NDIS Commission’s practice standards for SDA expect that agreement to meet the NDIS SDA Conditions Rules 2018 and any state or territory tenancy law that applies. They also expect each resident to receive a copy signed by both sides, or a record of why that was not practicable.

Dated change

What changed on 1 July 2026

Changes to the SDA rules began on 1 July 2026, and they touch only the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. Consumer Affairs Victoria calls them targeted updates to rent increase notices, SDA notices and agreements, and the legal standing of some residency agreements.

All five changes Consumer Affairs Victoria lists for residents, in force from 1 July 2026.
ChangeWhat it means
Rent in advanceProviders can collect rent at most one month ahead, where the limit was 30 days before.
Copies of noticesProviders must send copies of certain notices to Consumer Affairs Victoria and, where it applies, the NDIA.
New notice formsProviders must use 2 new approved forms, one of them a notice of rent increase.
Exceptional agreement ordersIn some circumstances where a resident is already living in an SDA dwelling before an agreement is signed, VCAT can make an exceptional agreement order to resolve it.
Schedule 4A new Schedule 4 to the Act deems certain SDA residency agreements valid and enforceable.

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