Victoria's Portable Rental Bond Scheme, explained
Since 1 July 2026, Victorian renters moving between rentals can transfer their existing bond to the new property through the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority instead of paying a second bond up front. It's optional, it costs $25, and it's the first scheme of its kind in Australia.
1. You sign the lease for your new place — but don't pay its bond. That timing matters: you must have signed the new agreement and not yet paid a bond under it.
2. You tell the new rental provider you'll pay the bond directly to the RTBA. They select "Renter Pay" when they lodge the bond request.
3. The RTBA emails you. You opt in, accept the terms, and pay the $25 fee — plus the difference if the new bond is higher than your current one.
4. Your bond moves. If your old rental provider later makes a successful claim against the old bond, the government pays it out and recovers that amount from you as a debt to the state (payment plans exist).
You're in if: your current bond is held by the RTBA, unclaimed, not suspended and has no pending transactions; both properties are in Victoria; and the same renters are listed on both bonds, with everyone agreeing to the transfer.
You're out if any of these apply — and this is where share houses need to read carefully:
Your share house is splitting up
Renters on one bond moving to different properties are expressly excluded. Each new household starts a fresh bond.
You live in a rooming house
Rooming houses, caravan parks and Part 4A dwellings are excluded from the scheme.
You're not on the bond
If a head-tenant holds the bond and you pay them a share, the scheme doesn't see you at all.
Loans and prior debts
Bonds funded by a Homes Victoria loan are excluded, and so are renters who still owe the state from a previous portable transfer.
Swapping one housemate on a continuing tenancy is a renter transfer, not a portable bond: the rental provider starts it with the RTBA within 5 days, every renter reviews it, incoming renters authenticate through Service Victoria, and everyone has 14 days to accept. No money is paid out by the RTBA in that process — settling the departing person's bond share is a private arrangement between housemates. If your household is planning both (a swap, then a move), the swap has to be finished first: the portable scheme requires identical renters on both bonds.
Rumy doesn't hold bonds or move money, and no platform can check bond status with the RTBA — the only lookup that exists needs your own bond number and surname. What you tell households about where your bond stands is your own declaration, the same as everything on any platform.
vic.gov.au/portable-bonds · about the scheme · how it works · consumer.vic.gov.au, 1 July 2026 · renter transfers · Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (Vic) No. 46/2025, inserting Part 10 Division 3A into the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. Verified 20 August 2026 — check the government pages before relying on this.