Leasing a new Donnybrook home for the first time
A house fresh from handover can still fail Victoria's rental minimum standards. What new Donnybrook homes most often lack before their first lease.
Fully licensed & accredited
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Building & Plumbing Commission -
Australian Society of Building Consultants -
Strata Community Association -
Building Dispute Practitioners Society
In short: New homes pass the structural standards easily and fail on what the builder never supplied or what was added later: window coverings, cord anchors and exhaust fans that end in the roof. Check those before the first listing.
New does not mean compliant
An occupancy permit says the house was built to the Building Code. It says nothing about whether it meets the Residential Tenancies Regulations, which ask for things a builder is not obliged to supply, such as curtains or blinds in every bedroom.
The bare-window problem
Many Donnybrook houses are handed over with no window coverings at all. Owners who lived there first often fitted blinds in some rooms and not others. Every room likely to be a bedroom or living area needs a covering that closes for privacy and blocks light.
Blinds added after handover
Where coverings were bought later, budget roller and vertical blinds usually arrive with a long looped chain. Since 1 December 2025 each corded covering needs an anchor holding the cord taut against the wall or frame.
Fans that stop in the roof
Some exhaust fans in the corridor were never ducted to outside air, so steam from the shower ends up in the roof space. The ventilation standard asks for wet areas to be ventilated to Building Code requirements, which a fan with nowhere to go may not achieve.
The order that saves a week
Book the standards inspection before the property manager photographs the home, give the fix list to your trades, then list. The electrician can look at the switchboard during the same week.
Written by our local inspection team from work carried out in Donnybrook. Licensed building practitioners.
