Heading home for the holidays? Sort your rental before you fly
Keeping your room, moving out or changing housemates over summer? Check your rent, paperwork and bond before the airport rush.
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Flights booked, suitcase out, summer plans coming together. If you’re heading home or travelling during the holidays, make time for your rental arrangements too. Sorting a bond dispute from another country is a poor way to spend the break. First, decide what you’re actually doing: temporarily leaving your room, ending your tenancy or moving out while housemates stay. Each needs a different plan.
Who this is for: Students planning holiday travel, ending a tenancy or changing housemates in Australia; NSW, Victoria and Queensland examples.
1. Keeping your room? Budget for rent while you’re away
A holiday does not pause your lease. If the tenancy continues, keep paying rent under your agreement unless you have a lawful, agreed change. Check scheduled payments and leave enough money for the weeks you’ll be away. Rent-payment obligations.
Keep access to the email and phone used for rental notices. If someone might take your room temporarily, check the applicable permission and subletting rules before promising it to them.
2. Giving up the room? Check the real cost first
Compare the rent you might save with moving, storage, early-exit costs and finding accommodation when you return.
Check required notice and the tenancy end date before arranging your flight around a key handover. Moving your belongings out does not, by itself, settle every obligation. Queensland’s ending-a-tenancy guide explains why the agreement and notice rules matter; use your own state’s process elsewhere.
3. Save the evidence before packing your laptop
Keep your agreement, bond number, entry condition report, move-in photos and repair correspondence in one accessible folder.
After cleaning and removing belongings, photograph each room, including the oven, bathroom, floors and existing damage. Keep dated originals and written confirmation of returning the keys. NSW condition-report guidance.
4. Know which bond process applies
If the whole tenancy is ending:
- NSW: A landlord claiming without your agreement must provide the exit condition report and supporting estimates, quotes, invoices or receipts within seven days of the claim. A Notice of Claim has a 14-day response period. Follow the formal dispute steps before the payment date. NSW bond disputes.
- Victoria: A rental provider intending to claim must give at least three business days’ notice before lodging with the RTBA and provide supporting evidence. A named renter can initiate a refund after the agreement ends. Other parties have 14 days to contest through VCAT or RDRV. Victoria bond claims.
- Queensland: Request a refund after the tenancy ends, not before the relevant notice expires. Parties disagreeing with the refund request have 14 days to request dispute resolution. Queensland bond refunds.
If housemates are staying, do not assume the whole bond should be refunded. NSW has a separate process for departing co-tenants. In Victoria, a renter transfer changes the names but pays no money out; settle any agreed repayment carefully before accepting removal.
Before departure, confirm who owes what, save your documents and check how you’ll receive notices and any refund overseas. Then pack.
General information only, original draft check: 21 October 2026; not legal or financial advice. Rules vary by state and accommodation type. Homestays, boarding and university accommodation may differ. Seek tenancy advice for your circumstances.
Photo: Kadarius Seegars on Unsplash, under the Unsplash Licence, permitting free commercial use. Alt text: Brown cardboard moving boxes stacked against a brown wall.