NSW's domestic violence tenancy reforms commence 21 September. Landlords now own the co-tenant notification within 7 days

This article is general information only. It does not consider your personal circumstances and is not tax, credit or legal advice. Speak to a registered tax agent, licensed conveyancer, property lawyer or property manager before acting on any of the obligations below.

The commencement date#

The Residential Tenancies Amendment (Domestic Violence Reform) Act 2025 commences in New South Wales on 21 September 2026 (NSW Fair Trading, Changes to rental laws). The Bill passed NSW Parliament on 22 October 2025 and received assent on 28 October 2025 (Parliament of NSW, Bill details).

For a landlord holding NSW stock, that is a 15-day runway from today. The reforms sit inside the broader package that the NSW Government has been rolling through the rental market across 2026, alongside the Rental Taskforce, the Smart Rental Bonds state guarantee, and the once-per-year rent cap that has been the sharp end of the reform arc for landlords.

The domestic violence reforms are process reforms rather than pricing reforms. They do not touch rent, bond levels or termination grounds for other tenancy events. What they change is the operational path when a valid domestic violence termination notice lands in an agency inbox or a self-managing landlord's mailbox. The path is now different in four material ways.

Change one: the 7-day co-tenant notification rule#

The single biggest process change is the co-tenant notification obligation.

Under the current law, a victim-survivor who ends a co-tenancy on domestic violence grounds is responsible for telling the remaining co-tenants that the tenancy has been ended. That is a real burden. The tenant is often in a shelter, at a friend's house, or in emergency accommodation, and being required to contact the person or people they have just fled from, or their household, adds risk to a process that is meant to reduce it.

From 21 September 2026 the responsibility shifts. The landlord or agent must notify the remaining co-tenants within 7 days of a domestic violence termination notice being served (NSW Fair Trading, Changes to rental laws; Marsdens Lawyers, Leaving Safely).

For an agency-managed property the agency will own the operational compliance, but the landlord still carries the beneficial obligation. That is worth confirming in the next management-agreement review.

For a self-managing landlord the obligation is direct. The practical steps that need to be documented in a one-page SOP:

• Acknowledge safely. Confirm receipt of the notice with the tenant on the contact channel they nominated. Do not copy the remaining co-tenants on the acknowledgment.
• Identify the remaining co-tenants on the current lease.
• Choose a delivery method for the co-tenant notification that does not disclose the departing tenant's forwarding address, phone or email. Post to the property, in person on a property visit, or agent-brokered delivery are all safer defaults than email that could be forwarded.
• Send within 7 days of the notice being served.
• Timestamp and file the notification in the property file with a copy of the notice.

The 7-day window is a hard obligation. A failure to notify is a compliance breach, and the Rental Taskforce has been proving out its enforcement posture on the wider rental law package. Do not assume that a domestic violence notice sits outside the Taskforce's audit path.

Change two: an expanded 'competent persons' list#

A domestic violence termination notice must be supported by a declaration signed by a competent person. The current list already includes medical practitioners, registered nurses, social workers and certain other prescribed classes.

From 21 September the list is expanded and clarified. The Act introduces prescribed employees to improve access for vulnerable groups. The Government has flagged the intent is to broaden practical access for:

• People with disability
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tenants
• Migrants and refugees
• People with limited English
• People in rural or remote areas

(NSW Communities and Justice ministerial release; NSW Fair Trading, Changes to rental laws)

The regulation-making power sits in the Act, so the exact list of prescribed employees is set by regulation. That means a landlord cannot rely on a static reference. The safer default is to accept any declaration that meets the form requirements on its face and to seek advice before challenging a declaration on the basis that the signer is unfamiliar. The Taskforce will not treat 'we did not recognise the profession' as a defence.

Change three: locks, security and the perpetrator exclusion#

The current Act already lets a tenant who has served a domestic violence termination notice change locks and security devices without the landlord's approval.

From 21 September the lock-change right expands. A tenant can change locks and security devices without the landlord's approval where there is a court order, bail condition or parole condition that excludes the alleged perpetrator from the property (Bugden Allen Group Legal, NSW passes major DV reforms to tenancy laws).

The tenant still has to provide the landlord with a new key or access on request and reinstate the original lock at the end of the tenancy. That has not changed. What has changed is the trigger for the right.

For a landlord this is a practical shift. If a tenant advises that a court order or bail condition is in place and they have changed the locks, the landlord's compliance path is to note the exclusion, request the new key or access under the usual rules, and update the property file. Refusing the lock change or demanding the old key back is not an option under the amended framework.

Change four: damage liability, privacy and the bond division#

Three secondary but material changes round out the package.

Damage liability. The Act expands protection for victim-survivors from liability for damage caused by domestic violence in defined circumstances (Marsdens Lawyers, Leaving Safely). Damage caused by the perpetrator is not deducted from the departing tenant's share of the bond. The bond claim reroutes to the perpetrator's share and the landlord's insurance where the exclusions do not bite. That is why the landlord insurance policy read matters this month: a deliberate-damage exclusion that is written narrowly may leave the landlord uncovered where the damage-shield redirects the bond claim.

Privacy. Privacy protections around photos and advertising are strengthened. Publishing photos or videos that identify the victim-survivor or the property in a way that compromises safety attracts a penalty. For a landlord planning a re-let campaign in the days after a domestic violence termination, the safer path is to delay marketing photography or reshoot from angles that do not identify the property, and to hold advertising until Fair Trading's guidance is clear.

Bond division. NCAT will be able to divide rental bonds between co-tenants so a victim-survivor can recover their fair share without waiting on the joint claim (Marsdens Lawyers, Leaving Safely). That is a NCAT process change rather than a landlord process change, but landlords need to know that a partial bond claim from one co-tenant can now proceed independently of the joint claim.

The database penalty is where the $49,500 sits#

The Act sits inside a wider enforcement framework. NSW Fair Trading has enhanced powers to order the removal of victim-survivors from residential tenancy databases, and a database operator that fails to comply with an order faces penalties of up to $49,500 (Bugden Allen Group Legal, DV tenancy reforms update).

For a landlord that means two things. One, if a former tenant is listed on a residential tenancy database in circumstances where the underlying event is connected to domestic violence they experienced, that listing is now exposed to a Fair Trading order and the landlord's evidence base should be reviewed. Two, when instructing a database operator on a new listing, the underlying event needs to be assessed for whether the tenant's non-performance can be attributed to domestic violence, in which case the listing may need to be withdrawn or amended.

The database penalty sits alongside the wider Rental Taskforce enforcement pattern that is being proven out across NSW. That pattern includes the 50/50 fine regime for reletting inside six months of a no-grounds termination and the Smart Rental Bonds state guarantee rolling out through the second half of 2026.

The 15-day compliance runway#

Between now and 21 September, a NSW landlord has four practical moves.

One: update the tenancy handbook or agency compliance manual. The 7-day co-tenant notification obligation, the expanded competent persons list, the lock-change trigger and the damage-liability shield need to sit inside the operational document that everyone in the process works off. Diary a compliance review for 22 September to close the loop.

Two: write a one-page SOP for a valid domestic violence termination notice. For self-managing landlords especially, the SOP is the difference between compliant and exposed. Acknowledge safely, notify co-tenants within 7 days, isolate the departing tenant's forwarding details, stop or reshoot any planned marketing photography, and file everything with a timestamp.

Three: refresh the landlord insurance policy. The interaction between the deliberate-damage exclusion in the policy and the new damage-liability shield in the Act needs to be understood before, not after, a claim is filed. If the exclusion is drafted narrowly, review the coverage with the insurer or broker in the next fortnight.

Four: audit any current residential tenancy database listings. If any current listing on a tenancy database names a departing co-tenant in circumstances that touch domestic violence, review it against the new Fair Trading order power now. The $49,500 penalty for a database operator sets the tone for what will attract the Taskforce's attention, and a landlord who instructed a listing that gets pulled is where the reputational exposure sits.

The reforms are about safety. They are also process obligations with real teeth, sitting on top of a rental law package that has been sharpening across 2026. Landlords who work the 15-day runway will be fine on 22 September. Landlords who do not will meet the Taskforce on someone else's timing.

If you are running the compliance review across a NSW rental portfolio this month, the Propkt property management tools put lease, notice and incident records in one place so the 7-day clock has a documented source of truth when it starts.