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Housing, property and land

Living in a rooming house

On this page you will find out about:

What is a rooming house?
Rooming house agreements
Bond, rent and other charges
A resident’s rights and responsibilities
Ending a rooming house agreement
Managing disputes
Getting support

What is a rooming house?

A rooming house is a residential property where rooms are available for rent to three or more people. Rooming houses include boarding and lodging houses.

The rooming house proprietor is the landlord and tenants renting a room are residents. In a rooming house, the proprietor can enter the common areas of the property without giving any notice and may also live in the property. The lease agreement is the rooming house agreement.

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Rooming house agreements

The rooming house agreement is a legal document that sets out your rights and responsibilities as well as those of the proprietor. It is important to read this document carefully and understand what you are signing.

Don’t sign a document if you don’t understand it. Ask the proprietor to explain any items that are confusing or that you're not sure about. If you have any concerns about a rooming house agreement contact Consumer and Business Services (CBS) for clarification.

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Bond, rent and other charges

The proprietor can’t ask you to pay:

any money other than the bond and one week’s rent in advance when you move in
taxes or rates
for services and utilities you weren’t told about in writing
for them to consider or consent to renewing or extending your agreement.

Bond

You can be asked to pay up to two weeks’ rent as bond. Bonds can be kept by the proprietor until the end of your tenancy, or they can be lodged with CBS. If no claim is to be made - eg for unpaid rent or property damage, this money will be returned to you or to Housing SA if they provided the bond on your behalf.

If your bond is not returned to you at the end of the rooming house agreement and you don’t believe the proprietor is entitled to claim your bond you can dispute this - see Disputing a private rental bond claim.

Rent in advance

You can be asked to pay one week’s rent in advance when you move in. The proprietor can’t ask you to be more than one weeks’ rent in advance.

Rent increases

Rent can generally be increased by the proprietor once every six months after at least four weeks notice in writing is given. This notice must show the new rent amount and the date the rent will change.

It may be a condition of your rooming house agreement that rent will increase to a set amount on a specific date.

If you are on a fixed term lease agreement rent can not be increased unless it is a specific condition in your rooming house agreement. If your rooming house agreement shows the new rent amount and the date it will apply from no written notice is needed.

Charges for services and utilities

You may be charged for certain services and utilities - eg water, electricity and meals. Before these services are made available to you the proprietor must tell you in writing that you will be charged for them and explain how these charges are calculated.

You can’t be charged for a service you weren’t told in writing you would have to pay for.

Receipts

You should get a receipt when you pay for:

bond
rent
services and utilities.

If you pay into a bank account the bank’s transaction records are considered receipts.

If you pay in cash a receipt should be given to you immediately.

If you pay with a cheque or money order the receipt should be given to you within five days.

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A resident’s rights and responsibilities

You have a right to:

live in peace, comfort and privacy
the quiet enjoyment of common areas
have access to your room at all times
have access to shared facilities - eg bathroom
ask for and receive a copy of the house rules unless these have been given to you within the last two months.

You are responsible for:

meeting the conditions of your rooming house agreement
paying rent on time
obeying the house rules
not using or permitting the property to be used for illegal purposes
keeping your room in a reasonable state of cleanliness
reporting any maintenance needed to the proprietor as soon as possible
allowing the proprietor reasonable access to your room.

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Ending a rooming house agreement

Usually you will only have to provide the proprietor with one day’s notice that you will be leaving.

If your agreement is for a fixed term and you want to leave before the end date you will need to negotiate this with the proprietor. You may be liable for the cost of re-advertising and re-letting the room, as well as for any loss of rent.

If you breach any of the conditions of your rooming house agreement or the house rules you can be evicted.

Your proprietor can end the agreement and tell you to leave if:

you fail to pay rent two weeks in a row and don’t pay in full within two days
you cause damage or permit a guest to damage the property
you or your guest puts the safety of other residents at risk
you or your guest disrupt the comfort, peace and privacy of other residents.

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Managing disputes

If you are having problems with the proprietor it is recommended you talk these over with them in a calm and courteous manner.

If you are unable to resolve a problem you can get information, advice and help negotiating with your proprietor from CBS.

You can make a request for assistance (PDF 50KB) by completing and lodging this form with CBS. CBS may be able to help you resolve the problem. For an alternative version of this document contact CBS tenancies branch.

You may be able to get free and independent support, advice and advocacy from the Tenants Information and Advocacy Service if you are having problems with your proprietor.

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