Four dates on one dial
-
1 May 2026
The amending Act starts
Section 2 of the Retirement Villages Amendment Act 2025 let it start on days to be proclaimed, and said that if it had not started before 1 May 2026, it would start on that day. Consumer Affairs Victoria confirms the changes came into effect on 1 May 2026, and calls them “the biggest change to the Retirement Villages Act 1986 since it was first made.”
-
1 May to 31 August 2026
The grace period
The Retirement Villages Regulations 2026 define a grace period from 1 May 2026 to 31 August 2026, inclusive. During it, operators could keep using their existing contract forms, provided those contracts met the new requirements that started on 1 May 2026.
-
1 September 2026
The standard form contract
From this date, new contracts must use the standard form set out in the Retirement Villages Regulations 2026.
-
1 May 2027
Old exemptions end
Existing exemptions from the Act continue until this date. An operator that wants to stay exempt must apply through myCAV and be granted a new exemption by 1 May 2027. New exemptions are at the Director’s discretion, last at most 5 years and are granted village by village; residents have 60 days to make submissions once the operator gives notice that it intends to apply.
Rules that turn on the date you signed
Section 66(1) of the Act takes applicable contracts out of Divisions 2 and 4 of Part 5B, meaning residence or management contracts in force immediately before the commencement day. Section 32I, the 12-month payment limit, sits in Division 2. The table puts that rule beside the others Consumer Affairs Victoria ties to 1 May 2026.
| Rule | Contracts it reaches |
|---|---|
| Exit entitlement paid no later than 12 months after the resident permanently vacates, even if no new resident has paid or moved in | Signed on or after 1 May 2026 |
| No further maintenance charges once vacant possession is handed back | Signed on or after 1 May 2026. For earlier contracts, the liability does not necessarily end at that point |
| The contract estimates the costs of leaving after 1, 2, 5 and 10 years | Entered into on or after 1 May 2026 |
| A resident’s share of a capital loss is no larger than their share of a gain, where losses are shared | Signed on or after 1 May 2026 |
| No automatic duty to renovate on leaving; renovation only under a written agreement on the work, the costs and any capital gain or loss | Entered into on or after 1 May 2026 |
| VCAT can also order a miscalculated entitlement recalculated, award interest and make other necessary orders | Signed on or after 1 May 2026 |
Consumer Affairs Victoria adds that some contracts signed before 1 May 2026 already require payment within 6 months of handing back vacant possession, and suggests checking the contract or getting legal advice. The guide to being paid when you leave prints section 32I whole, beside the other states’ rules.
What operators must now do
Consumer Affairs Victoria’s reforms page lists new duties on operators, among them these five. It dates the first three from 1 May 2026.
- to give Consumer Affairs Victoria information every year, and update it within 14 days of any change;
- to publish an information statement on their website, keep it current, and give it to a prospective resident on request and at least 21 days before a management contract;
- to give non-owner residents a condition report before they move in, on the prescribed form, on paper in 2 copies or by email;
- to provide a contract check each year and when a resident asks;
- to establish a procedure for dealing with disputes, publish it online and give it to a resident on request.
The same page sets out how operators must answer a request to modify fixtures and fittings: consent or refusal within 14 days of a written request, and no unreasonable refusal. It also requires an emergency and evacuation plan for each village, kept up to date, with annual safety inspections and evacuation exercises.
A contract check is the operator’s written estimate of what a resident would receive on leaving, worked out from that resident’s contract. A fee for one may be charged only where the resident asked for it and has not given notice of leaving.
What the contract itself must say
Contracts signed from 1 May 2026 must follow rules about what they can and cannot contain. Consumer Affairs Victoria’s contracts page also sets out what a contract must say: a residence contract must address how any exit entitlement is calculated, and a contract with a deferred management fee must say how it is calculated, as a percentage of the entry payment and by length of stay. It also says a contract cannot make the resident pay any fee, cost, charge or liability the information statement left undisclosed.
The 7-business-day cooling-off period sits alongside all of this; the first-days guide sets it beside the other states’. If something goes wrong, the guide to disputes follows Victoria’s three paths: the village dispute procedure, VicAssist and VCAT.