RDRV announcement

26 October 2024

VCAT welcomes the Victorian Government’s announcement on the establishment of Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria (RDRV).

Launching in June 2025, RDRV provides a fast, cheap, fair one-stop shop for renters and rental providers to resolve their disputes.

While the RDRV service is being delivered by VCAT, it will introduce new ways of working to the current Residential Tenancies (RT) List operations.  

These new ways of working include:

• Non-judicial staff will triage, aid, and resolve disputes as soon as possible, reducing legalistic processes and outcomes.  
• A dedicated phone and online service will allow common renting disputes to be resolved from the comfort of home rather than a formal hearing room, with informal mediation services also available.
• Each case will have a dedicated case manager and outcomes will be binding and enforceable, just like outcomes from the tribunal.

This announcement comes at the same time VCAT has successfully resolved the backlog of over 21,500 residential tenancy cases.  We have ensured that thousands of people have had their dispute resolved and have ordered the return of millions of dollars in bond money to the community.

Key stakeholders will be invited to provide feedback on the proposed service design to understand any possible challenges or emerging issues to operationalising the model.

We look forward to providing further updates as we move towards the launch of RDRV in 2025.