Queensland's rental reforms began in 2021 and have arrived in stages ever since, most recently through the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 and the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Regulation 2025.

Two features set Queensland apart from New South Wales and Victoria, and both catch out operators who assume the states have converged:

1. The first is that the 12-month rent increase clock follows the property rather than the tenancy. Change the tenant, change the agent, change the owner: the clock keeps running.

2. The second is that Queensland has not closed the end-of-fixed-term route. Where NSW and Victoria removed the ability to end a tenancy at the expiry of a fixed term, Queensland retains it as an approved ground, with two months' notice.

Add a trust account audit schedule calculated from the month your licence was first issued rather than a common calendar deadline, and you have three requirements that no interstate template will handle correctly.

This guide covers the position as at August 2026.

Key Queensland Compliance Deadlines

1. The Reform Timeline

Queensland's reforms have landed in tranches since 2021, and which tranche applies to a given tenancy still matters. Agreements entered into before 1 September 2025 remain valid, but new agreements must use the current forms, and using a superseded form is among the most common and most expensive errors in the state.

If you manage rooming accommodation, that last row is a matter of days rather than months. The 2009 Regulation's prescribed house rules stop applying at the end of 31 August 2026, so anything carried over needs checking against the 2025 requirements now.

2. Licensing and Trust Accounts

Real estate agents and resident letting agents are licensed under the Property Occupations Act 2014, administered by the Office of Fair Trading. Anyone holding trust money operates under the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 and must have those accounts audited annually. Property owners themselves register nowhere, though they carry extensive duties under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008.

The audit month is where Queensland diverges most sharply from the other states, and it is easy to get wrong because there is no shared industry deadline to work backwards from.

Your audit period is a 12-month period ending on the last day of your audit month. For most licensees, the audit month is the eighth month after the month in which the licence was first issued. The chief executive can specify a different month by written notice. The report is due within four months after that audit month ends.

The Act's own example: a licence first issued in January has an audit month of September. A March licence gives November, with the report due within four months of 30 November. Two agencies on the same street can be working to entirely different dates.

You can confirm your audit month and lodgement date with the Office of Fair Trading. Note that the agent stays responsible for lodgement even where the auditor submits it.

The unannounced examinations are the part agencies underestimate. Two of them across a full audit period, one where the licence was held for more than six months but not the whole period, and no warning in either case. Reconciliations that get tidied up at month end will not survive that, which is why reconciliation-grade reporting on client money has to be a continuous state rather than a monthly catch-up.

3. Agreements and Documents

Two things about that table repay attention.

The last rent increase date now lives in the agreement. Because the 12-month clock attaches to the property, that date has to travel into every new agreement rather than starting fresh. Tenants can also ask for written proof of the last increase at any point, and you have 14 days to provide it. Failing to do so is an offence.

There are exceptions: exempt lessors as defined in the Act, and properties being let for the first time, where the date of first letting is the reference point. Transitional exceptions also apply to certain properties purchased between 6 June 2023 and 6 June 2025 where the new owner or manager genuinely does not have the previous increase details.

Application forms are standardised, but not rigid. Covered general tenancy and moveable dwelling applications use the standardised Form 22, subject to statutory exemptions, and rooming accommodation uses Form R22. An agency can use its own version instead, provided it complies with the Act and Regulation.

What you cannot do is ask about a prospective tenant's bond history or previous legal actions. The RTA is actively monitoring third-party application platforms whose forms fall short, and if you take applications through a portal, the compliance failure lands on you rather than the platform. Worth checking what yours actually collects.

4. Bonds

Three points diverge from other states. The four-week cap has applied to all general tenancies since 30 September 2024 with no exception for expensive properties, and the total of every amount taken, whatever it is called, has to fit inside it. There is no pet bond of any kind. And a tenant keeping a pet cannot be charged anything extra.

The seven-day QCAT window after failed conciliation is the shortest clock in this guide, and its consequence is quiet. If the person who lodged the dispute does not apply to QCAT in time and notify the RTA, the RTA simply refunds the bond as directed by whoever first lodged the refund request.

5. Rent Increases

Start with the rule that causes the most trouble in Queensland, because everything else in this section follows from it: the 12-month period attaches to the property, not the tenancy. It applies even where the last increase involved a different tenant, was handled by a different agent, or was made by a previous owner.

Increase the rent in January 2026, the tenant leaves in April, a new tenant moves in during May. The rent cannot rise again until January 2027. Signing a fresh agreement restarts nothing.

Two consequences follow for anyone running a rent roll. Initial rent on a re-let is locked for the balance of the 12 months, so it needs setting with that in mind rather than as an opening position. And increase history has to survive tenant turnover, agent transfer and ownership change in your records. That is exactly why the legislation now puts the date in the agreement itself: the paperwork carries what the database might lose.

Notice can be served before the 12-month period ends, provided the increase takes effect afterwards.

6. Ending a Tenancy

A periodic tenancy has needed an approved reason since 1 October 2022. Notice goes on a Notice to Leave (Form 12), and the period depends entirely on the ground relied on.

Moveable dwellings run on different, shorter periods, so check the current schedule on the RTA's Form 12 page before serving.

Four things then shape how that plays out.

The end-of-fixed-term ground survives in Queensland where it does not in NSW or Victoria. An owner can decline to continue a tenancy at the end of a fixed term with two months' notice, which means interstate guidance will confidently tell your clients they have no option when in fact they do.

Notice can be given as late as one day before the term ends, but the two-month minimum still applies, so the tenant may stay well past the lease end date. A fixed term ending 14 November with notice served on 13 November gives the tenant until at least 13 January.

Some grounds cannot cut a fixed term short at all. Sale contract and owner occupation are among them: the tenancy finishes on the agreement end date or the notice end date, whichever falls later.

And if the tenant does not leave by the handover date, you have two weeks to apply to QCAT for a termination order. Where QCAT makes that order on the lessor's application, it also issues a warrant of possession. The lessor cannot recover possession outside the process the Act authorises.

7. Pets

A tenant asks in writing to keep a pet. The owner responds in writing within 14 days, or consent is implied.

Refusal is only available on identified reasonable grounds, such as the pet breaching a law or by-law. Conditions on a consent must be reasonable, and requiring the pet to be kept outside can qualify.

What cannot be a condition: a rent increase, or a pet bond. Neither is reasonable, and approving a pet on that basis is not approval on terms Queensland recognises.

8. Repairs and Minimum Housing Standards

Minimum housing standards now cover every tenancy: weatherproofing, structural soundness, working locks, functioning plumbing and drainage, privacy coverings on windows, safe fixtures and fittings. They arrived in stages, applying to new tenancies from 1 September 2023 and to all tenancies from 1 September 2024.

For emergency repairs, if the appropriate emergency repair contact cannot be reached within a reasonable timeframe, either the tenant or the property manager can arrange the work up to a maximum value of four weeks' rent. That ceiling is considerably higher than the fixed dollar limits in New South Wales and Victoria, and unlike them it moves whenever the rent moves.

Which is the awkward bit operationally. Because the limit is a multiple rather than a number, authorisation thresholds cannot be hard-coded per property, and repair history, invoices and authorisations need to sit in a structured work order and documentation workflow that can show what was authorised, at what limit, and when.

9. What It Costs to Get Wrong

10. Building It Into a System

Four Queensland triggers behave unlike their interstate equivalents, and each one breaks a different assumption.

The rent increase clock belongs to the property, not the tenancy, the agreement or the tenant. Store increase history against a tenancy record that closes when the tenant leaves and you have lost the evidence that the next notice was valid, along with the agreement field the Act now requires you to populate.

The trust audit schedule comes from your licence issue month. No shared industry deadline, no entry in any generic compliance calendar, and nothing to prompt you. It has to go in per entity, by hand.

Two deadlines can easily collide with tenancy close-out. Supporting evidence for a bond claim or dispute is due within 14 days, and a party taking a failed RTA conciliation to QCAT has seven days from the Notice of Unresolved Dispute. Both fall precisely when attention has moved on.

Emergency repair authority is a multiple rather than a number, so four weeks' rent shifts every time the rent does.

Underneath all four sits the same pattern: Queensland hangs its obligations on the property and the licence, while most property management systems are built around the tenancy. That mismatch is where the data goes missing.

Conclusion

Queensland reformed earlier than New South Wales and Victoria and stopped somewhere different. Periodic tenancies need an approved reason to end, but the end-of-fixed-term route survives. Rent increases are annual, though the clock belongs to the property and the date now has to appear in the agreement. Bond claims go to the RTA first and need evidence within 14 days. Trust accounts are audited every year, on a schedule calculated from a licence issue month rather than a calendar.

That is not a heavier compliance load than the southern states. It is a differently shaped one, which is the more dangerous problem, because a process imported from NSW or Victoria will appear to work right up until a notice is ruled invalid or an audit lands late.

Queensland is one of eight Australian jurisdictions, and its rules are its own.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can a landlord end a tenancy at the end of a fixed term in Queensland?
Yes. Unlike New South Wales and Victoria, the end of a fixed term agreement remains an approved ground in Queensland, requiring at least two months' notice on a Notice to Leave (Form 12). It is not available for periodic agreements.

2. How often can rent be increased in Queensland?
Once every 12 months, with at least two months' written notice for general tenancies. Since 6 June 2024 the 12-month period attaches to the property, so it applies even where the last increase involved a different tenant, a different agent or a previous owner.

3. Does the tenancy agreement have to show the last rent increase date?
Yes. The date must be included in the tenancy agreement, and a tenant can request written proof at any time during the tenancy. You must provide it within 14 days, and failing to do so is an offence. Exceptions apply for exempt lessors, first-time lettings, and certain properties purchased between 6 June 2023 and 6 June 2025.

4. What is the maximum bond in Queensland?
Four weeks' rent for general tenancies, regardless of the weekly rent, since 30 September 2024. Moveable dwellings are capped at two weeks, or three weeks where electricity is provided. There is no pet bond.

5. How long do I have to provide evidence for a bond claim?
Fourteen days after making the claim, unless you cannot contact the tenant after reasonable efforts. Evidence can include receipts, repair quotes or records of unpaid rent. Failing to provide it is an offence.

Important Notice

This article applies to Queensland only. Residential tenancy law in Australia is state and territory legislation, and the position differs in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory. Guidance written for another state does not apply in Queensland.

Information was checked against the Residential Tenancies Authority, the Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works, the Queensland Office of Fair Trading, the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Regulation 2025, the Property Occupations Act 2014 and the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014, available as at 26 August 2026. Queensland's reforms have arrived in stages since 2021 and forms are periodically superseded, so always check you are using the current RTA form. Prescribed house rule requirements change on 1 September 2026. Audit months may be varied by written notice from the chief executive. Notice periods differ between general tenancies, long-term moveable dwellings and short-term moveable dwellings, and only general tenancy periods are reproduced here. Penalties, fees and prescribed forms may change.

Always check the current position with the RTA before serving a Notice to Leave or a rent increase notice, and with the Office of Fair Trading before lodging a trust account audit.

This content is general information only and does not constitute legal, financial or accounting advice. RIOO is not a law firm. Termination proceedings and trust account breaches carry significant legal and financial consequences. Consult an Australian legal practitioner qualified in Queensland before acting.