Ingenia to pay $1m to Consumer Law Fund over tenancy breaches

The news: Ingenia Communities will pay $100,000 to the Housing for the Aged Action Group and $1 million to the Victoria Consumer Law fund following an investigation by Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) that identified regulatory breaches relating to cooking facilities across its Victorian senior rental communities.

The context: This comes after CAV found that Ingenia had breached the Victorian Residential Tenancies Act and Australian Consumer Law by failing to install cooktops in its Ingenia Garden communities. The investigation revealed non-compliance across units that were left without cooking facilities between March 2021 and May 2026.

Under the CAV order, Ingenia will pay affected residents $15.89 per week as well as a lump sum of $50 in recognition of the denial of their rights. The company said the total compensation costs are not expected to exceed $1.5 million.