Selling Your Home - Information Sheet S2

Closure of a Part 4A village

Should the owner of a land-lease village, that comes under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 Part 4A, wish to close the village, there are certain requirements that must be met:

• the owner must notify, in writing, the local council of the area in which the village is located. This must be done at least 14 days before the owner gives the site tenants notices to vacate the village.
• the owner must give the site tenants a notice to vacate the village, with the end date at least 365 days after the notice is served. The notice must also state the reason for the closure. The end date on a notice to vacate must not be before the end date of the site tenant’s fixed term or site agreement.
• the owner must apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) within 30 days of issuing notices to vacate so that VCAT can determine the amount each eligible site tenant should receive. Failure to do this means that the notices to vacate become void. (The only exception to compensating eligible site tenants is if the village owner does not own the land the village is situated on, and the village is closing because the head lease of that land is expiring.)

Compensation for eligible site tenants

Eligible site tenants are those who own a relocatable dwelling, and it is fixed to the land in the village that is closing. When working out how much a site tenant will be compensated, VCAT will consider if the dwelling is to be relocated and costs associated with the relocation such as the cost of:

• disconnecting services from the dwelling
• removing the dwelling from the site
• transferring the dwelling to a new site
• installing the dwelling at the new site (but not for landscaping)
• anything else that VCAT considers relevant

If a dwelling is not to be relocated, VCAT will work out how much the site tenant should be compensated, taking into account:

• the dwelling’s original purchase price, and the dwelling’s current onsite market value
• the likely cost of the site tenant having to move elsewhere, taking into account:
• removing their contents from the dwelling and relocating them
• how long they have lived on the site
• the inconvenience of finding somewhere new to live

anything else VCAT considers relevant. Once VCAT has decided how much compensation must be paid, they will issue an order with a date that the amount must be paid by. The date on the order must be at least 30 days before the end date on the notice to vacate.

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