In June 2023, the former Ministers for Consumer Affairs and Small Business issued Statements of Expectations (SOE) to CAV and the Business Licensing Authority. The SOEs are published in About us.
CAV’s SOE outlined governance and performance objectives aimed at enhancing our administration and enforcement of regulations, to minimise their impact on businesses and the community. The performance objectives identified in the SOE cover five expectations, set out below:
Protecting Victorians: Protecting Victorians from the impacts of rising cost of living pressure
CAV was asked to focus on protecting Victorians from the impacts of rising cost of living pressures by providing a timely response (including accurate communications and effective investigation and enforcement activities) to the most significant risks of harm caused by non-compliant trader and rental provider conduct, in particular:
- domestic building industry challenges leading to unfinished or defective homes, or loss of money paid upfront
- rental providers failing to provide safe and secure accommodation that meets minimum standards, and
- motor car traders that sell poor quality cars and fail to provide a remedy for defects.
Implementation
Through its dedicated Building Information Line, CAV supports consumers in the domestic building industry by guiding them on matters under the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995. We assist with a wide range of issues through the Frontline Compliance Response service, including unresponsive builders, defective or incomplete work, and delays in providing required documentation.
During 2024–25, CAV delivered updated information, education, and guidance to the public in key priority areas. This included the successful Funda-rentals campaign, enhancing awareness of renters’ rights. Our increased support for rent increase investigations continued, providing recourse for renters who felt that rent increases delivered by rental providers were excessive. Additionally, we assessed, escalated, and investigated issues of non-compliance, decreasing response times to instances of serious non-compliance.
In 2024–25, CAV’s Motor Car Traders Program made significant progress in promoting compliance in the industry. We collaborated with industry co-regulators and stakeholders, leveraging information sharing between regulators to deploy targeted compliance activities more effectively. We achieved successful interventions with problematic traders by taking innovative approaches to tackling persistent non-compliant behaviour. One important aspect of our efforts has been empowering and assisting consumers in resolving disputes with traders. In 2024–25, we helped many Victorians in this way, with a significant increase in frontline compliance response services.
Supporting all Victorians: Supporting all Victorians, especially those experiencing vulnerability, through inclusive and accessible services
This expectation requires CAV to work within the Department of Government Services and with Service Victoria to make it easier and quicker for all Victorians to find, access and use important consumer protection information and advice.
Implementation
Throughout the year we supported Victorians experiencing vulnerability. Our community programs provided funding for organisations to deliver critical financial counselling, renting and consumer assistance, and advocacy support.
We progressed our funded services program reviews, aiming to make services as accessible and useful as possible. In 2024–25, the government undertook the competitive Financial Counselling Funding Round to increase support for people experiencing financial hardship, due to mortgage or rental stress. $15 million was allocated from 2025–26 to 2027–28.
We also improved access to consumer services for First Nations communities through our Yarrka Barring initiative, which included a dedicated webpage and telephone support.
Digital technology: Harnessing digital technologies to improve CAV services and make the most of CAV data and resources for the community
CAV was asked to focus on working within the Department of Government Services and with Service Victoria to deliver new online systems and tools that improve services for Victorians.
Implementation
In 2024–25, we continued to make significant upgrades to our licensing and registration systems, known as myCAV, to make it easier and faster for users to manage their regulatory obligations with us. We transitioned from legacy systems and consolidated all licensing and registration schemes into a single access point for myCAV account holders, migrating 40,000 incorporated associations and 500 co-operatives to a single online platform. This modernised infrastructure improves efficiency, reduces costs, and enhances user convenience.
We progressed the RTBA bond management system replacement project in the 2024–25 year. The project will modernise Victoria’s rental bonds platform to meet contemporary and future needs. Through a complete digital transformation, the project will significantly improve renting for Victorian renters. Lodging, transferring, and claiming bonds will be a more user-friendly experience, enhancing access to and trust in government services. The new system is also capable of supporting initiatives like the Portable Rental Bonds Scheme, a commitment under the government’s Housing Statement.
Engaging with the community: Engaging with partners to better serve Victorian communities
This expectation requires CAV to engage with partners, stakeholders, and industry to better understand and serve Victorian communities, in particular:
- holding regular forums and engagement opportunities to understand emerging issues, and obtain input into how CAV undertakes its functions, and
- collaborating closely with other regulators where relevant, to address risks of harm to the community.
Implementation
CAV’s Stakeholder Engagement Framework, published in June 2024, drives our collaboration. In 2023–24, we committed to two standing stakeholder forums and in 2024–25, we followed through on this commitment, with both the Consumer and Renter Consultative Forum and the Housing and Property Advisory Forum, continuing to support holistic sector and stakeholder engagement.
We encouraged participation in the second iteration of our stakeholder survey. The survey aims to determine which issues are most important to our stakeholders and where they believe we should concentrate our regulatory efforts. The survey was completed in 2025, and the results will inform our continuing regulatory focus.
CAV also collaborates with other regulatory bodies such as the Essential Services Commission, the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria, and local councils. As the Victorian regulator for the Australian Consumer Law, we work with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and other state and territory consumer regulators.
Raising awareness: Improving Victorians’ trust in CAV as a regulator
CAV was asked to focus on improving Victorians’ trust in CAV as a regulator by raising awareness of CAV’s role and functions, and increasing promotion of CAV’s compliance and enforcement activities.
Implementation
We have acted on our strategic focus by significantly increasing the visibility of our compliance and enforcement work. High-profile taskforces (for renting, underquoting and the machete ban) drew attention to systemic harms and demonstrated CAV’s readiness to intervene when consumer safety or confidence is at risk. These taskforces – alongside regular public warnings and news alerts – have strengthened community awareness of CAV’s role as an active regulator.
A clear uplift in enforcement activity has underpinned this stronger promotion. Between 2023–24 and 2024–25, CAV increased its court and administrative actions from 963 to 1171. Over the same period, finalised criminal prosecutions increased from 4 to 8, and finalised civil matters rose from 3 to 7. CAV also commenced 20 new criminal and civil proceedings in 2024–25, compared with 17 in 2023–24. By publicising these outcomes and broader taskforce activity, we have reinforced our commitment that serious non-compliance will be detected, acted upon, and communicated transparently.
The Director of CAV raised our public profile by undertaking regular media engagements in 2024–25 including radio interviews on ABC, 3AW and Joy FM on various topics, as well as appearing on TV news in several instances.
We ran multiple social media campaigns aimed at raising awareness of both Victorians’ rights and CAV’s role and functions. One key campaign was the previously mentioned Funda-rentals campaign, launched to improve renters’ understanding of their rights and rental providers’ awareness of their legal rental obligations. The campaign also aimed to improve confidence that CAV is upholding key consumer protections and ensuring a fair and safe rental market. Analysis of this campaign revealed that Victorians were strongly engaged with it across multiple platforms.