For rental providers & property managers · Victoria

Restumping a rental in Shepparton: who pays, how fast, and what it costs.

The rental provider pays, every time, unless the renter caused the damage. Under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 the premises must be kept in good repair and must meet the rental minimum standards, and one of those standards is that the property is structurally sound and weatherproof. If the floor is unsafe it is an urgent repair and has to be attended immediately, and the renter can arrange up to $2,500 of it themselves and be reimbursed within 7 days. If it is safe but sagging, written notice starts a 14 day clock. On a typical Shepparton weatherboard, budget $4,500 to $9,000 for a partial restump and $12,000 to $22,000 for a full one.

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The obligations at a glance

Who is responsible, how long you have, and what it costs.

Timeframes below come from the Victorian residential tenancies rules as they apply to a subfloor or structural repair. Costs are realistic Goulburn Valley figures for 2026, before any difficult-access loading.

Situation	Who is responsible	Legal timeframe	Typical 2026 cost
Floor has dropped and a room is unsafe to use	Rental provider	Urgent repair Attend immediately. Renter may arrange up to $2,500 themselves and must be reimbursed within 7 days of written notice	$600 - $1,800 to prop, then the repair
Burst or seriously leaking water service under the floor	Rental provider	Urgent repair Attend immediately	Leak detection and repair $700 - $2,150, rotted bearer and joist work $1,800 - $5,000
Floor slopes or bounces but is safe to walk on	Rental provider	Non-urgent 14 days from the renter’s written notice	Levelling $3,500 - $8,000 or partial restump $4,500 - $9,000
Property not structurally sound at the start of a new agreement	Rental provider, before the renter moves in	Before letting Rental minimum standards apply from the start of the agreement	Full restump $12,000 - $22,000 if the stumps are gone
Renter caused the damage, for example driving or storing plant under the floor	Renter	No fixed timeframe. Provider may seek compensation at VCAT	Cost of the repair, evidenced by an itemised quote
Subfloor vents blocked by a garden bed, stored goods or a new path	Shared. Provider maintains, renter must not alter the premises	At next inspection	$250 - $900 to clear or add vents
Getting the crew on site	Provider or agent serves notice, renter must allow access	24 hours written notice, entry between 8 am and 6 pm, not a public holiday unless agreed	$0
Renter loses use of part of the home during the work	Rental provider	Negotiate a reduction, or the renter may apply to VCAT	Rent abatement varies. Landlord policies often cover loss of rent
Floor movement noted at the vacate inspection	Rental provider. This is not renter damage	Bond claims must be lodged within 14 days of the tenancy ending	$0 to the renter
Claiming the work at tax time	Owner, with their accountant	No timeframe. Records should be kept for 5 years after the claim	Repair deducted in the year, or capital works at 2.5% a year over 40 years

General information for Victorian rental providers and agents, not legal or tax advice. Current rules are published by Consumer Affairs Victoria, and your accountant decides the tax treatment. Our full rate card is on the pricing page.

The rules, in plain words

Minimum standards, urgent repairs and the 14 day clock.

Victoria’s rental rules sit in the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and the regulations under it. Two parts matter for a subfloor problem. The first is the general duty on a rental provider to keep the premises in good repair, which does not depend on the renter asking. The second is the set of rental minimum standards, which every rented home has to meet, and which includes a requirement that the premises are structurally sound and weatherproof. A floor supported by stumps that have rotted through is not structurally sound, and no amount of goodwill from the renter changes that.

Repairs then split into two categories, and the split drives the timeframe. Urgent repairs are a defined list in the Act, and the one that catches subfloor failure is any fault or damage that makes the premises unsafe. A burst water service, a dangerous electrical fault and a gas leak are also on that list, and all three turn up alongside a floor that has dropped hard. Urgent repairs must be attended immediately, and if the renter cannot reach you or your agent they may arrange the repair themselves up to $2,500 and be reimbursed within 7 days of giving you written notice of the details.

Non-urgent repairs run on a written notice. The renter gives notice, you have 14 days to complete the repair, and if it is not done the renter can ask Consumer Affairs Victoria to inspect and report, then apply to VCAT for a repair order. Fourteen days is tight for a restump, because the work itself is one to two weeks on site and there is a building permit in front of it. The practical answer is to start inside the 14 days and to document it: a signed quote, a permit application lodged and a booked start date is compliance in progress, whereas silence is not.

Access and entry

To bring a crew in you need to serve at least 24 hours written notice of entry, and the entry has to happen between 8 am and 6 pm and not on a public holiday unless the renter agrees. For a job that runs a fortnight, serve one notice that covers the working period rather than dribbling out daily notices, and speak to the renter about dogs, side gates, parking for the truck and where the spoil will be stacked. Most of a restump happens under the house, so the renter usually keeps living there, but they will hear it and they will be walking past an open subfloor.

Managing the property and need a quote you can send the owner?

We inspect free, photograph the subfloor for your file, and send an itemised fixed-price quote with permit and engineering shown as separate lines.

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For property managers

How to run this job without it eating your week.

The pattern we see on managed properties in Shepparton, Mooroopna and Kialla is always the same. A renter reports a sticking door or a bouncy floor at a routine inspection, it gets logged as maintenance, and eight months later it is an urgent repair at 6 pm on a Friday. The cheap version of this job is the one that gets diagnosed early.

Get it under the house, not just photographed from inside. A floor level reading and a look at the stumps costs nothing on a free inspection and tells the owner whether they are facing $3,500 or $22,000. Guessing from a photo of a cracked cornice does not.
Check your management agreement spend limit before you book anything. Most agreements set an amount you can authorise without owner approval, commonly $1,000 to $2,000. Make-safe propping at $600 to $1,800 usually sits inside it. A restump never does.
Serve the entry notice once, for the whole work period. And tell the renter the truth about noise and access, because a renter who feels ambushed complains to Consumer Affairs Victoria and a renter who was warned makes a cup of tea for the crew.
Keep the paper. Written notice from the renter, your instruction to the owner, the quote, the building permit number and the certificate of final inspection. If this ever reaches VCAT, that file is the whole defence.
Get the permit into the timeline early. Restumping is building work in Victoria and needs a permit from a registered building surveyor before the stumps come out, with an engineer’s footing design behind it. Allow a week or two for that, and read our Greater Shepparton permit guide so the owner is not surprised by a $600 to $1,400 line item.

What we need from you to quote a tenanted property

The address, the approximate age of the house and whether it is weatherboard, brick veneer or full brick.
What the renter reported, in their words, and the date they reported it.
Renter contact details or your preferred access arrangement, and whether there are dogs.
Whether the owner wants a full restump priced, a partial priced, or both compared.
Any earlier building or pest report on the property, which usually tells us the stump material and condition years ago.

Vacate inspections

What happens to floor movement at the end of a tenancy.

Structural movement is never renter damage, and it should never be the subject of a bond claim. A condition report is taken at the start of the agreement and compared at the end, and a floor that has kept settling over a three year tenancy is fair wear and tear at worst and a provider obligation at best. Bond claims in Victoria are made through the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority, and if the renter does not agree, the provider has to apply to VCAT within 14 days of the tenancy ending.

Two things do get argued about at vacate, and both are worth photographing at the start of every tenancy. The first is blocked subfloor ventilation: a renter who built a raised garden bed against the wall or stacked firewood over the vents has contributed to the damp that rots stumps, and that is a legitimate conversation, though clearing it is $250 to $900 and not a restump. The second is anything driven or parked where it should not be. Neither of those is worth a bond dispute on its own, and both are avoidable with a line in the entry condition report and a photo of the vents.

The other end of the tenancy matters more. If you are about to re-let a house you know has a sagging floor, the minimum standards apply from the start of the new agreement, not from the date the renter first complains. Fixing it between tenancies is also far cheaper for everyone: empty access, no notices, no rent abatement, and the crew can work through instead of around someone’s day. If the property is going on the market instead, our pre-sale guide works through whether to fix or disclose.

Tax

Deductible repair or capital improvement.

This is general information and it is not tax advice. Your accountant decides how your situation is treated, and the difference is worth real money, so ask them before you commit.

In broad terms the Australian tax rules separate a repair, which restores something to its former condition without improving it and is generally deductible in the year you pay for it, from capital works, which are written off over time. Replacing four failed stumps in one bearer line and re-levelling that bay tends to look like a repair. Replacing every stump in the house, particularly where timber is replaced with concrete or galvanised steel, tends to look like capital works, deductible at 2.5 per cent a year over 40 years. There is also the initial repair rule: work that fixes a defect which already existed when you bought the property is usually capital even if it would otherwise be a repair, which catches a lot of investors who buy an old Shepparton weatherboard and restump it in year one.

Whatever the treatment, keep the file: the itemised invoice, the building permit, the engineer’s computations and the certificate of final inspection. That file is also what a future buyer’s conveyancer will ask for, and what supports a depreciation schedule.

When we tell an owner not to restump yet

If the stumps are sound and the house has simply settled unevenly, levelling at $3,500 to $8,000 does the job and a $16,000 restump is money burnt. If only one bearer line has failed, a partial restump is a legitimate repair and we will quote it that way. And if a property is going to be sold within a year to a buyer who will renovate, it can be honest to disclose and discount rather than spend. What we will not do is tell an owner a house is fine when the floor is not safe for the people living in it. If it is unsafe, it gets propped now, and the rest is a conversation.

Questions from owners and agents

Who pays to restump a rental property in Victoria?

The rental provider does, in every case except where the renter caused the damage. Under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 the provider must keep the premises in good repair and must meet the rental minimum standards, one of which is that the premises are structurally sound and weatherproof. Stumps failing after 50 or 60 years is a provider cost, not a renter cost, and it cannot be passed on through the rent mid-agreement. Budget $4,500 to $9,000 for a partial restump and $12,000 to $22,000 for a full one on a typical Shepparton weatherboard.

Is a sinking floor an urgent repair or a non-urgent repair?

It depends on whether it makes the premises unsafe. A floor that has dropped so that a room cannot safely be used, or a subfloor failure that comes with a gas or electrical fault, falls in the urgent category and has to be attended immediately. A floor that slopes or bounces but is safe to walk on is a non-urgent repair, which gives the provider 14 days from the renter’s written notice. Getting that call wrong is expensive, so if there is any doubt get someone under the house within 24 hours.

Can the renter organise the repair themselves?

For urgent repairs, yes. If the renter cannot get hold of the rental provider or agent, they can arrange the urgent repair themselves up to $2,500 and the provider must reimburse them within 7 days of receiving written notice of the details. In practice that covers make-safe propping, which runs $600 to $1,800, not a full restump. Answering the phone quickly is the cheapest thing a provider can do here, because it keeps the choice of contractor with you.

How much notice do we need to give the renter for the work?

For entry to carry out duties under the Act, including repairs, the rental provider or agent must give at least 24 hours written notice, and entry has to be between 8 am and 6 pm and not on a public holiday unless the renter agrees. A restump runs one to two weeks on site, so serve one notice covering the work period rather than a notice a day, and confirm access, pets and parking with the renter before the crew arrives.

Can we claim restumping as a tax deduction?

This is general information and your accountant decides your situation. Broadly, replacing a handful of failed stumps to restore the floor tends to be treated as a repair and deducted in the year it is paid, while replacing every stump, especially swapping timber for concrete or steel, tends to be treated as capital works and written off at 2.5 per cent a year over 40 years. Work done to fix defects that existed when you bought the property is usually capital regardless. Keep the permit, the engineer’s computations and the itemised invoice.

Does the renter get a rent reduction while the work happens?

Often, yes, if their use of the property is genuinely reduced. Most of a restump is done from underneath and the house stays habitable, so on a straightforward job there is usually no reduction. If a room is unusable for a week, or water and power are interrupted, the renter can negotiate a reduction and can apply to VCAT if you cannot agree. Many landlord insurance policies cover loss of rent when a property becomes uninhabitable, so check that before you offer anything.

Get a price

Get an itemised restumping quote for a tenanted property

Send the address and what the renter reported. We inspect free, work in with your entry notice, and send a fixed-price itemised quote you can forward straight to the owner.

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