The Housing Registrar is committed to:
- supporting registered agencies to achieve good governance, financial viability, quality tenancy services and asset management through regular compliance assessment
- reducing the regulatory burden on registered agencies
- facilitating greater investment in the sector by promoting confidence in the performance of registered agencies
- making our regulatory approach and processes more accessible and transparent
- identifying opportunities for improvement, including through feedback mechanisms.
In 2021–22, we focused on better regulation through ensuring rigorous decision-making across our regulatory functions. We have achieved this through standardisation of analysis and decision-making criteria.
In our Corporate Plan 2020–22, we committed to a range of activities for better regulation. The following table sets out our commitments under the Corporate Plan, and the relevant activities undertaken in 2021-22:
| Corporate Plan 2020–22 commitments | Delivered in 2021–22 | KPIs addressed |
|---|---|---|
| We will continue to publish compliance guidance and better practice guides to assist registered agencies meet compliance obligations and promote continuous improvement opportunities. |
Asset reporting guidance note published October 2021. Reporting changes guidance note sent to registered agencies March 2022. Board certification guidance note published June 2022. |
3, 4, 5 |
| We will source and use intelligence and data to inform our understanding of tenant experiences and drive risk-based, targeted and proportionate regulatory activities. This will improve our ability to identify systemic issues and target our attention, taking a strategic approach to compliance and enforcement activities. | As detailed in Organisational excellence, we have made system improvements to better capture complaints information. This will enable us to better utilise these insights about tenant experiences and direct our regulatory attention. | 3, 4 |
| In order to drive good tenant outcomes, we have continued to refine our public reporting. We have developed a sector dashboard which shows key information including rent and arrears, evictions, and total tenancies. In addition, Performance Reports for the 2020–21 financial year were published four months earlier than the previous year and within three months of key performance measure reporting being received (this addressed feedback received in last year’s survey that sector benchmarks were being published too late for registered agencies to make meaningful comparisons). | 2, 4, 5 | |
| Continue to review risk and intelligence tools including the Regulatory Engagement Tool and horizon scanning framework. |
In November 2021 we undertook an exercise to calibrate the risk ratings of each registered agency. This process involved lead and financial regulators and regulation managers sharing knowledge and data to determine appropriate levels of engagement with registered agencies relative to their size, activities and risk profile. For the identification of emerging risks, we included a new question in our 2022 sector survey asking registered agencies about emerging risks they face in a changing economic, growth and reform environment. |
1, 2, 3, 4, 6 |
| Develop a Compliance Framework to identify and prioritise systemic issues and provide transparency for our regulatory response. |
The development of a Compliance Framework was delayed due to competing priorities. In the interim, we focused on our complaints approach and processes. This has included confirming our statutory jurisdiction for complaints and improving our data collection and reporting for complaints and enquiries. We have also delivered process and system changes for the changes to the Act, accompanied by supporting materials for registered agencies. |
4, 5, 6 |
| Strengthen our financial modelling and forecasting capabilities. | Our focus in 2021–22 has been to improve the quality of data received through better templates and support for registered agencies to provide accurate information as easily as possible. We have made significant improvements to the Financial Performance Report template to reduce the reporting burden, accompanied by three training sessions attended by 87% of registered agencies. | 1, 3, 4, 5 |
Making it easier to comply
We have considered the compliance and reporting requirements for registered agencies and have made the following improvements:
- reviewed the performance against performance standards report template to provide direction for registered agency self-assessment and enhance transparency when conducting annual compliance assessments
- removed the requirement for housing associations to provide half-yearly unaudited financial statements, reducing the reporting burden for registered agencies
- reviewed the Financial Performance Report template to improve usability and efficiency for registered agencies, and enable the identification of emerging risks associated with project delivery and sector growth
- removed the requirement for registered agencies to review and approve the annual compliance assessment in CHiMES. This addressed feedback in last year’s survey that the process of approving the report was confusing and delayed final publication of compliance results.
These changes aim to reduce the reporting burden on registered agencies in line with our risk-based and targeted approach to regulation.
Regulatory activities
The Housing Registrar’s ongoing regulatory activities include:
- registering new community housing agencies
- de-registering community housing agencies and facilitating merger arrangements
- monitoring registered agency performance and conducting annual compliance assessments
- managing complaints and responding to enquiries from tenants and prospective tenants
- responding to enquiries from members of the public.
Registrations
During 2021–22, we registered four new housing providers including one special purpose vehicle (SPV):
- Evolve Housing Vic Ltd: 20 December 2021
- MCM Housing Limited: 22 December 2021
- Assemble x HCA HA Ltd (SPV): 21 March 2022
- BlueCHPV Limited: 30 March 2022.
The Registrations and Sector Growth team has identified opportunities for streamlining the registrations process arising out of the project discussed above in Organisational excellence. These process and associated system changes will be implemented throughout 2022–23.
At 30 June 2022, there were 13 applications in various stages of progress from initial registration enquiry through to active application and assessment. This registration pipeline indicates the sector will continue to grow in coming years.
De-registrations
On 18 January 2022, Eastern Suburbs Rental Housing Cooperative merged with SouthEast Housing Cooperative. Following the merger, Eastern Suburbs Rental Housing Cooperative was de-registered (22 June 2022). The Housing Registrar worked closely with these organisations to support merger arrangements.
Annual compliance assessments
The Housing Registrar aims to complete annual compliance assessments for every registered agency by 31 March each year for the previous financial year.
In 2021–22, we had completed 97.5% of 2020–21 annual compliance assessments by 31 March 2022, compared with only 18.4% of 2019–20 assessments by 31 March 2021. Although this represents a significant improvement in timeliness, sector survey results indicate an appetite for further improvements in this area. This contributed to the assessment of ‘somewhat met’ for KPI 1.
The Corporate Plan 2022–24 identifies actions to address the timeliness of communicating assessment outcomes to registered agencies including further streamlining our internal processes for annual compliance assessments to ensure best use of resources.
| March | April | May | June | July | August | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020–21 ACAs completed | 39 | 0 | 0 | 1 | - | - | 40 |
| Cumulative total | 39 | 39 | 39 | 40 | - | - | |
| Cumulative % | 97.5 | 97.5 | 97.5 | 100 | - | - | |
| 2019–20 ACAs completed | 7 | 22 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 38 |
| Cumulative total | 7 | 29 | 37 | 37 | 37 | 38 | |
| Cumulative % | 18.4 | 76.3 | 97.4 | 97.4 | 97.4 | 100 |
Complaints and enquiries
Under the Act, the Housing Registrar may investigate complaints by tenants or prospective tenants of registered housing agencies in relation to rental housing matters that have been unable to be resolved by a registered agency after 30 days. We are unable to consider complaints referrable to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) through our complaints function under Section 96 of the Act, but consider all complaints for non-compliance with performance standards.
In 2021–22, the Housing Registrar received 490 enquiries by phone or email of which:
- 376 did not relate to registered housing agencies
- 114 related to registered housing agencies.
2021–22 enquiries to the Housing Registrar
The enquiries that did not relate to registered housing agencies were primarily complaints about public housing and enquiries for access to social housing through the VHR. In these circumstances, the Housing Registrar provides information and referral options to assist resolving the enquiry. This may involve multiple contacts with a single enquirer to determine if their issue relates to a registered agency and what the best referral options may be.
In 2021–22, we received 114 enquiries relating to registered agencies. Eighty-four of these were from tenants or prospective tenants and were considered within the context of our complaints role under Section 96 of the Act.
The Registrar investigates complaints using its complaints function (if it meets the requirements listed in Subdivision 2 of the Act) or its monitoring and enforcement functions (if it indicates a systemic failing or non-compliance with the Act, regulations or performance standards). This often involves multiple contacts with the complainant or their advocate and, where permission is given by the complainant, with the registered agency. We record the details of all complaints to enable analysis of common issues for individual registered agencies and across the sector. We use the intelligence gathered from analysis of the complaints and enquiries we receive to inform our ongoing compliance and investigation activities.
The chart below shows the origin and type for the 114 enquiries relating to registered agencies received by the Housing Registrar in 2021–22.
Origin and type of enquiries
Updated