Giving notice

​You must complete and provide your property owner/manager with a Domestic and family violence notice ending tenancy or a Domestic and family violence notice ending residency.

Providing evidence

You must also provide evidence of domestic and family violence when giving notice. You do not have to disclose any details about the domestic and family violence to the property owner or manager.

You can show you are experiencing domestic and family violence by providing at least one of the following to the property owner or manager:

• A protection Order or Temporary Protection Order
• A Police Protection Order
• An interstate order or injunction for personal protection under the Family Law Act 1975
• A Domestic and Family Violence Report signed by an authorised professional which is defined as: (i) a doctor; (ii) a social worker; (iii) a refuge or crisis worker; (iv) a domestic and family violence support worker or case manager; (v) an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical service; (vi) a solicitor.

Changing locks

You can change locks to your property without the owner’s permission to ensure your personal safety if you:

•   Ensure the locks are changed by a qualified tradesperson or locksmith
•   Pay for the new locks
•   Provide copies of the keys or access codes to the property owner or manager within seven days. They owner will not be able to give copies of keys or access codes to anyone unless you agree.
• You cannot change locks to common property such as general entry or exit doors to apartment complexes 
• For rooming accommodation, the provider must change or repair the lock that secures entry to the resident's room if the resident believes it is necessary to protect them from domestic and family violence.

Rental bond refunds

• You can apply to have your part of the bond refunded by contacting the RTA. Once the property owner agrees, your bond will be refunded.
• You won’t be responsible for any damage to property or rent arrears caused by the domestic and family violence. But you will be responsible for damage to property or rent arrears that is not the result of domestic and family violence.

Information privacy

•  You should not ask for specific details about the domestic and family violence when a tenant has applied for a DFV Notice ending tenancy.
•  You cannot disclose any information about the domestic and family violence to another person unless required to by law, including the tenant’s forwarding address information. Penalties apply.
•  You must securely store and handle the information provided to you. Penalties apply.

Rental bond refunds and other costs

• You cannot ask the tenant to pay for lost rent, advertising or reletting fees of costs of disposing of abandoned goods if your tenant has left the tenancy due to domestic or family violence.
• You will need to refund your tenant their part of the rental bond. You can apply to QCAT to resolve any dispute around refunding the bond. This might be for example around damage to the property or rent arrears not resulting from the domestic or family violence.

Once issued with a Domestic and family violence notice ending tenancy, a property owner or manager must inform the tenant who has lodged the request:

• If you intend to make an urgent application to QCAT to review whether the notice has been validly given
• You will be informing other tenants who remain on the lease that a tenant is leaving the property and that the tenancy agreement will continue for the remaining tenants. Please note: you must not notify the remaining tenants until the seven-day notice period has expired.

If more than one tenant is on the lease, you need to inform the remaining tenants that:

• One tenant is vacating the lease
• The lease will continue for the remaining tenants
• They will need to top up (via a bond increase) the rental bond after one month's notice is given

• Your tenancy will continue as normal and you will need to keep paying the full amount of rent.
• You may be asked to top up the rest of the rental bond if a tenant has left because of domestic or family violence reasons, in which case you will need to pay
• You will have one month until you need to top up (via the bond increase) the bond
• You cannot end the tenancy because you don’t want to top up the bond