On 21 September 2026 the Residential Tenancies Amendment (Domestic Violence Reform) Act 2025 and its supporting regulation start in NSW. NSW Fair Trading emailed licensees this week with the list of new and updated forms. The note at the bottom is the one to read twice: the new forms are required from that date, and using the old ones after it is non-compliance.
Most of the reform is about making it safer for a renter to leave a violent home. But several changes land squarely on the agent’s desk, and a couple of them touch the trust account. Here’s what’s changing, what you need to do before the 21st, and where the rent and bond records come into it.
The short version
- From 21 September 2026, the landlord or agent must notify remaining co-tenants within 7 days of a domestic violence termination notice. The departing tenant no longer has to.
- Six forms change on that date, including the standard tenancy agreement, the condition report and both information statements. Three others can be used now.
- The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) gets the power to split a bond between co-tenants and to decide that damage caused by domestic abuse isn’t the victim-survivor’s to pay.
- More professionals can sign the competent person declaration, locks can be changed in more situations, and victim-survivors can’t be listed on a tenancy database.
- In the trust account, the work is getting the termination date, the rent refund and the bond records right, and keeping the evidence confidential.
What the rules already say
Since 2019, a NSW tenant experiencing domestic violence, or whose dependent child is, has been able to end their tenancy immediately with a Domestic Violence Termination Notice (DVTN). The termination date can be the day the notice is given. The notice has to come with one of four pieces of evidence: a certificate of conviction, a domestic violence order (provisional, interim or final), a family law injunction, or a declaration by a competent person.
Once they’ve given the notice and moved out, the tenant’s agreement is over. There’s no break fee, no reletting costs and no liability for rent after they leave. Damage done during a domestic violence incident is the offender’s responsibility, not the victim-survivor’s. And a tenant who ends a lease this way can’t be listed on a tenancy database for it.
None of that changes. The 2026 reforms fix the parts that turned out not to work in practice, and they came out of a statutory review that consulted more than 400 people and 40 organisations.
What changes on 21 September 2026
The co-tenant notice becomes your job. Under the current rules the departing tenant has to give the DVTN to their co-tenants as well as to the agent. When the co-tenant is the perpetrator, that means telling them you’re leaving. From 21 September, the landlord or agent must notify the remaining co-tenants instead, within 7 days, using the new approved form. You don’t hand over the evidence or any private information with it. This is the change with a deadline attached to your name, so it needs an owner in the office and a diary entry the day a DVTN arrives.
More people can sign the declaration. The competent person list already covers registered health practitioners, social workers, child protection workers, staff of funded domestic violence and sexual assault services, and approved counsellors. It now extends to prescribed employees of services supporting people with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, migrants and refugees, people with limited English, and people in rural and remote areas. There are new Schedule 3 declaration forms, one for the tenant and one for a tenant’s dependent child.
Damage caused by abuse isn’t the victim’s to pay. The principle was already there. The reform gives NCAT clear power to decide whether damage was caused by domestic abuse, and to identify the alleged perpetrator. A victim-survivor, and any co-tenant who isn’t the perpetrator, can’t be held liable for it.
Bonds can be split. In a co-tenancy the bond sits with Rental Bonds Online under everyone’s names, and until now a departing victim-survivor’s share was often simply lost. NCAT can now order a co-tenant to pay the departing tenant an amount equal to their bond entitlement, working out shares either on what each person contributed or on an equal basis.
Locks. A tenant can already change the locks where the offender’s tenancy has ended or an apprehended violence order excludes them. The grounds now extend to any court order, bail condition or parole condition that keeps the alleged perpetrator away from the property, with no landlord consent needed.
Photos and advertising. Landlords and agents must give at least 7 days’ notice before photographing or filming the property for advertising, and get written consent before publishing images that show the tenant or their belongings. A tenant who has experienced domestic abuse, or who reasonably fears the images could reveal where they live, can refuse. The consent form is available now.
Tenancy databases. If a tenant has provided evidence of domestic abuse during the tenancy, they can’t be listed. NSW Fair Trading will be able to order a listing removed.
The forms that change on 21 September
Fair Trading’s list is short and specific. These are required from 21 September 2026:
- Landlord information statement
- Landlord notice to remaining co-tenants of a Domestic Violence Termination Notice
- Schedule 1: Standard Residential Tenancy Agreement
- Schedule 2: Residential Tenancy Condition Report
- Schedule 3: Declaration by Competent Person, and the full list of competent persons
- Tenant information statement
These three can be used before commencement:
- Consent to publish photos and visual recordings
- Domestic Violence Termination Notice, leaving tenant to landlord
- Notice to terminate by tenant
The practical trap is the tenancy agreement and the condition report. Most agencies generate both from merge templates inside PropertyMe, Property Tree or their equivalent. Check with your software provider that the 21 September versions are loaded, and stop any new agreements or condition reports going out on the old form after that date. An agreement signed on the wrong form is the kind of thing that surfaces at NCAT months later.
What it means in the trust account
For most agencies the reforms are a process change, not a money change. But the day a DVTN arrives, a few things have to happen in the ledger, and they’re the things an auditor or a tribunal will ask to see later.
Get the termination date right. The tenant’s liability ends on the date in the notice, which can be the same day. The paid-to date and the rent ledger need to reflect that date, not the date the keys came back or the date someone got around to processing it. If the tenant has paid rent ahead of the termination date, the rent for the period after it is refundable. It comes out of trust like any other refund: authorised, receipted against the right ledger and documented.
Don’t charge what can’t be charged. No break fee, no reletting or advertising costs, no compensation for the balance of the lease. If those charges are set up to raise automatically on a lease break in your software, switch them off for a DVTN before the invoice runs.
Co-tenancies keep going. Where co-tenants remain, the tenancy continues and the rent keeps falling due. The existing rules protect a remaining co-tenant who isn’t the perpetrator from having to cover the departing tenant’s share for the two weeks after they leave. Expect a short-rent fortnight on the ledger, and record why it’s there.
Bond claims need better records than usual. If there’s damage, the question of who caused it now goes to NCAT with a clear test. Your condition report, dated photos and maintenance history are the evidence. Don’t lodge a claim against a departing victim-survivor for damage that was plainly caused by someone else. And where a co-tenant later seeks their bond share through NCAT, you’ll be asked for the rent ledger and the bond record. Keep both clean. If the departing tenant is moving to a new NSW tenancy, our note on Smart Rental Bonds explains why a claim already lodged blocks a bond transfer.
Keep the evidence out of the file everyone can see. The declaration or order that came with the DVTN is sensitive. It doesn’t go to the co-tenants, it doesn’t go in the owner’s disbursement notes, and it shouldn’t sit in a shared document folder. Tell the owner the tenancy ended under the domestic violence provisions and what that means for rent and bond, and stop there.
Tell the owner early. The owner loses a tenant with no notice and no break fee. That’s the law, and it’s better explained on day one than discovered on the statement. The NSW trust accounting page covers the bond lodgement clock that still applies to any new tenancy that follows.
A checklist for the next week
- Nominate who owns the 7-day co-tenant notice, and add it to your DVTN procedure.
- Download the six new forms and confirm your software templates match them from 21 September.
- Start using the consent-to-publish form and the 7-day photo notice now.
- Brief property managers on the wider competent person list, so a valid declaration isn’t rejected because the signer isn’t a doctor.
- Check your tenancy database habits. A DVTN tenant is never listed.
- Set up a DVTN step in the trust account process: termination date, refund of rent paid ahead, charges switched off, evidence filed securely.
Where that leaves you
Most of this is about doing the right thing quickly and quietly for someone having the worst week of their life. The compliance side is straightforward if the forms are right and the ledger reflects the real dates. Our trust accounting service handles the rent and bond side of tenancy changes like these every day, across PropertyMe, Property Tree, Palace and REST. If you’d like a hand getting your DVTN process and templates ready before the 21st, get in touch.
Sources: Changes to rental laws and Ending a tenancy because of domestic violence, NSW Government; New rental protections for domestic violence victim-survivors pass NSW Parliament (22 October 2025); NSW Fair Trading licensee update “Preparing for Domestic Violence Rental Reforms commencing 21 September” (10 September 2026); Factsheet 12: Domestic violence and renting, Tenants’ Union of NSW. The reforms are made by the Residential Tenancies Amendment (Domestic Violence Reform) Act 2025 and the Residential Tenancies Amendment (Domestic Violence Reform) Regulation 2026. This article is general information for agencies, not legal advice. If you or someone you know is in danger, call 000, or 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) for confidential support.