Financial counselling and legal support
- Are you paying your rent, but struggling to afford other living expenses?
- Is your rent more than 30 per cent of your income?
- Are you having legal trouble with your rental home?
- Are you behind in your rent and can’t catch up?
- Are you at risk of becoming homeless?
What is rental stress?
Rental Stress happens when a person’s rent is unaffordable, making it hard for them to pay for other things they need.
Help is available for Victorians who are having trouble paying for rent and other living costs.
AV can help with rental stress
We can help private renters who are experiencing rental stress by:
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Providing legal advice |
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Helping you understand your financial situation |
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Providing tips and tools to help you manage your money |
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Helping you arrange payment plans and negotiate with creditors |
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Referring you to other services such as housing and advocacy |
Sometimes it’s hard to know whether your problem is a financial or a legal issue, and it could be both. Our financial counsellors or experts will be able to determine which service will be most helpful for you or work together to help you resolve the matter if required.
For more information, call Anglicare Victoria on 1800 992 495.
Please note that the AV Rental Stress Program does not provide direct financial support, pay for rental arrears, damage to property or rental bonds.
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The Rental Stress Programme is a programme that incorporates financial counselling and also Gippsland Community Legal Service for free legal advice regarding tenancy issues.
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What we're seeing with clients that are coming through to us is that they're unable to meet their financial obligations.
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Rent has increased substantially, their income may not have increased, they may have had a health issue, there may be family violence involved, and that has left them with a reduced income.
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We are seeing more and more people that are put under pressure, just to keep a roof over their head.
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Even if they're not facing financial hardship, it might be that they’re meeting all their requirements, but their rent is more than 30 per cent of their income, and they're just struggling to get by.
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When someone enters our programme we do a comprehensive intake to start with, so we can understand exactly what's going on for them, whether they need a legal referral, and then they'll get allocated to a financial counsellor.
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That financial counsellor will work with them, will do advocacy where needed.
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We advise people about their rental situation and the legal situation that's associated with that, and we do that Victoria wide.
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One of the important factors of our programme is that we do do self-empowerment.
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We give clients the tools to be able to advocate for themselves if they need to and if they’re willing to. Otherwise, we can do that for them, help them with any utility relief grants or grants that they might be eligible for to get them through, and hopefully on the road to sustaining their rent.
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It does not matter where you are in Victoria, so long as you're a renter and so long as you are renting privately.
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It could be shared accommodation, it could be in a caravan park, it could be in a boarding house. Anything that is described as private rental people are eligible for the programme.
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We are accessible, five days a week for any advice about residential tenancies.
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Most of the work is done remotely, so there's no need to take any time off work, juggling appointments, we can absolutely assist over the phone.
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We provide free, confidential, non-judgemental advice. Reach out to us, talk to us, let us know what's going on so that we can assist.
General Enquiries
Call us on 1800 992 495 or complete the enquiry form below and a member of the team will get back to you.
