New safety checks are now required for all rental homes statewide, following the tragic death of a Ballarat resident two years ago.
52-year-old Simon Scarff died when he tried to escape his burning rental apartment in Alfredton.
His family have since advocated for smoke alarm checks for all Victorian rentals.
New State Government reforms now require providers to conduct smoke alarm checks every 12 months and gas and electrical safety checks every two years for all rentals, no matter when the lease started.
Speaking in Ballarat yesterday, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gabrielle Williams, said the Scarff family have turned their grief into an opportunity to make around 240,000 homes across the state safer.
“It is an incredibly difficult thing to turn personal tragedy into a point of advocacy to ensure that you can make changes that will save the lives of others, and that’s exactly what the Scarff family have done,” she said.
