Kitchens and carpets get all the attention before a final inspection. Walls are what the argument is actually about.
They’re the last surface anyone looks at properly, they carry four years of a household on them — the grey smudge beside every light switch, the scrape where a bedhead sat, the constellation of holes where a gallery wall used to be — and unlike an oven, you can’t just clean harder until the problem goes away. Some of it comes off. Some of it never was yours to fix.
The good news is that Victoria is unusually specific about which is which, in two documents most renters have never opened.
The two documents that decide this
Consumer Affairs Victoria’s Director issues guidelines under section 486 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. Two of them cover walls: Guideline 2 (Cleanliness) and Guideline 3 (Damage and fair wear and tear).
These are not brochures. Both state that VCAT must have regard to them when determining applications under sections 211B and 452 — the sections your bond dispute runs through. If your agent’s claim contradicts the guideline, they’re arguing against the document the Tribunal is required to consider.
And the law underneath them is short. Section 61(1) says a renter must not intentionally or negligently cause damage. Section 61(2) says that for that purpose, “damage” does not include fair wear and tear. Section 3 defines fair wear and tear as deterioration caused by reasonable use and natural forces.
The same scuff mark appears in both documents — with opposite consequences
This is the part that trips everyone up, and once you see it the whole thing gets simple.
Guideline 2 lists what “reasonably clean” looks like at handover. Walls are on the list:
“Walls and skirting boards to be reasonably free of scuff marks, fingerprints, and dust.”
Guideline 3 lists what counts as damage. Scuff marks are on the other side of that ledger:
“Cracks in the wall caused by building movement, or minor marks or scuff marks on the wall”
— filed under fair wear and tear, not damage.
Both are true at once, and they’re answering different questions:
| The question | The answer |
|---|---|
| Do I have to try to clean the marks off? | Yes. Reasonably free of scuff marks and fingerprints is the cleanliness standard. |
| Can they charge me for marks that don’t come off? | No — minor marks and scuff marks are fair wear and tear, and fair wear and tear isn’t damage. |
So the obligation is effort to a reasonable standard, not a spotless result. Guideline 2 says it directly: a surface is reasonably clean if it “cannot be further improved by additional cleaning to a reasonable standard”. And on the overall bar:
“It does not mean spotless or pristine nor does it mean terribly messy; the standard should sit somewhere in the middle and will depend on the nature, age, and circumstances of the rented premises.”
One practical warning from doing this for a living: test any serious scrubbing in a hidden corner first. On flat or low-sheen paint — which is most Melbourne rental hallways — aggressive cleaning can burnish the surface or lift the colour, and you convert a mark that was fair wear and tear into missing paint that isn’t. Stopping early is sometimes the right call.
Where the line actually falls
Guideline 3 gives a side-by-side table. These are its own examples, verbatim:
| Fair wear and tear | Damage |
|---|---|
| Cracks in the wall caused by building movement, or minor marks or scuff marks on the wall | Holes in walls or missing paint due to wall hooks, nails or shelves installed by the renter |
| Worn/faded kitchen bench top | Burns or cuts in the kitchen bench top |
| Scuff marks on a wooden floor | Badly scratched or gouged wooden floors, caused, for example, by dropping something heavy on the floor |
| Faded curtains or blinds | Curtains or blinds which are stained or ripped |
There’s a second table for pets, and it repeats the same split on walls:
| Fair wear and tear (pets) | Damage (pets) |
|---|---|
| Minor marks or scuff marks on the wall | Claw or bite marks on walls or skirting boards |
Read the wall rows together and the rule is one sentence: the mark is theirs, the hole is yours.
But you’re allowed to hang things — so what about the holes?
Both can be true, and they are.
Since the 2021 reforms you can install picture hooks or screws for wall mounts, shelves or brackets without asking, on everything except exposed brick or concrete walls. On exposed brick or concrete you need consent, and Consumer Affairs Victoria says that consent cannot be unreasonably refused.
What permission doesn’t do is erase the end-of-agreement obligation. CAV’s position is that at the end of the rental agreement you either restore the property to the condition it was in immediately before the change was made — allowing for fair wear — or pay the reasonable cost of restoration, unless the provider agrees otherwise, it’s written into the agreement, or a modification bond was paid.
So the sensible sequence when you move out:
- Take the hardware out — hooks, screws, wall anchors, mounts, brackets.
- Fill and make good what you put in, matching the surface as closely as you reasonably can.
- Photograph each repair in place, wide shot and close-up, on the day you hand back.
- Don’t paint a whole wall on a hunch. A fresh patch of the wrong white is more visible than a filled hole, and repainting without consent is its own modification.
If you made a change with written consent and the agreement said it could stay, that email is the document that saves you. Keep it with your condition report.
Depreciation: why “repaint the whole wall” claims deflate
Say there is real damage and you accept it. The number still isn’t whatever a painter’s quote says.
Guideline 3 is direct about the principle:
“The RRP is not entitled to compensation merely because things wear out.”
And it isn’t left to argument. Regulation 90 of the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021 prescribes the ATO Rental Properties 2020 Guide as the depreciation scale for the purposes of section 211A(2)(b), and VCAT must consider that scale when determining compensation payable by a renter for a damaged part of the premises. The guideline’s own worked example is carpet: a renter of eight years “could not be expected to pay for the replacement of carpet at the end of the tenancy given carpet is considered to have an 8-year life span.”
The same logic runs at a wall that was already three tenancies old when you moved in. You are not funding a renovation.
VCAT has applied this to walls specifically. Among the claims the guideline records the Tribunal as having disallowed or diluted on fair wear and tear grounds:
“Minor marks and staining on walls where only a limited amount of the claim could be attributed to the renter.”
Note the phrasing — only a limited amount could be attributed to the renter. Even where marks were real, the claim shrank to the renter’s actual share.
The one wall claim that does stick
Guideline 2 lists incidents during a tenancy that can genuinely justify professional cleaning under regulation 12(1)(b), and one of them is on walls:
“Grease or soot stains on walls or ceilings.”
Alongside lingering cigarette or pet odours, wine or urine stains in carpet, and soap scum in the bath. A kitchen wall glazed with cooking grease, or smoke shadowing above a heater, is not a scuff mark — it’s soiling, and restoring it is fairly on you. Cleaning it properly before the inspection is much cheaper than having it quoted against your bond.
Worth knowing what that clause can’t do, though: for agreements entered into after 29 March 2021, professional cleaning can only be required in the circumstances regulation 12 sets out. A blanket clause demanding professionally cleaned walls, with nothing that happened during your tenancy behind it, is not one of them. There’s more on how that clause works in the end of lease cleaning checklist.
What settles it in practice
VCAT decides walls on evidence, and the evidence is almost always photographic.
Guideline 2 says the Tribunal relies on the condition report and any photos or video to determine the state of the premises at the start, and it specifically endorses close-ups:
“Close up photos can be used to identify any existing deterioration such as scuff marks on walls, carpets, appliances, and fixtures.”
It also records that “reasonably clean” does not mean a condition superior to what the condition report documented, and that the premises being in a lesser state than at the start does not automatically make the renter liable.
So, concretely:
- At move-in, photograph every wall, close, in daylight, and write the marks onto the condition report even when they feel too small to bother with. Small marks you didn’t record are the ones that get charged.
- At move-out, shoot the same walls from the same positions. Matched pairs are worth more than a hundred loose photos.
- If a deduction lands, ask which column of Guideline 3 the item sits in and what depreciation was applied. Those two questions collapse most wall claims on their own.
If they claim against the bond anyway, the RTBA and RDRV process is where it goes — and it’s free.
The short version Minor marks and scuff marks on walls are fair wear and tear and can’t be charged as damage — but you still have to clean walls to “reasonably free of scuff marks, fingerprints, and dust”, which is effort, not perfection. Holes and missing paint from your hooks, nails or shelves are damage. You may install picture hooks without consent on most walls, but you still have to make good at the end. Any repair claim runs through the prescribed depreciation scale — “the RRP is not entitled to compensation merely because things wear out” — and VCAT must have regard to these guidelines, so quote them.
Frequently asked questions
Can my rental provider charge me for scuff marks on the walls?
Generally no, not as damage. The Director's Guidelines on damage and fair wear and tear list "Cracks in the wall caused by building movement, or minor marks or scuff marks on the wall" as fair wear and tear, and section 61(2) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 says damage does not include fair wear and tear. What you do have is a cleaning obligation — the cleanliness guideline expects "Walls and skirting boards to be reasonably free of scuff marks, fingerprints, and dust." So you should wipe what wipes off; you are not liable for what remains once the wall is reasonably clean.
Am I allowed to put picture hooks in the walls?
In Victoria you can install picture hooks or screws for wall mounts, shelves or brackets without consent, except on exposed brick or concrete walls. On exposed brick or concrete you need consent, and Consumer Affairs Victoria says consent cannot be unreasonably refused. Being allowed to install them is not the same as being allowed to leave the holes behind — at the end of the agreement you generally have to restore the property to the condition it was in immediately before the change, allowing for fair wear, or pay the reasonable cost of doing so.
Are nail holes and hook holes fair wear and tear?
No. The Director's Guidelines put "Holes in walls or missing paint due to wall hooks, nails or shelves installed by the renter" in the damage column, opposite minor marks and scuff marks in the fair wear and tear column. That is the clearest line in the whole document — the mark is theirs, the hole is yours.
What about blu-tack marks?
Blu-tack is not named in either guideline, so nobody gets to quote a rule at you. It gets argued by analogy — a faint greasy shadow that survives cleaning looks like a minor mark, while lifted paint where the blu-tack pulled the surface away looks like missing paint. The condition report and your move-in photos matter more here than anywhere else, because there is no published line to point at.
Can they charge me the full cost of repainting a wall?
Not automatically. The guidelines are blunt that "The RRP is not entitled to compensation merely because things wear out", and regulation 90 of the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021 prescribes the ATO Rental Properties 2020 Guide as the depreciation scale VCAT must consider when working out what a renter owes for a damaged part of the premises. A claim that ignores the age and condition of what was already there is a claim to push back on.
This guide is general information based on official sources current at the date shown above. Tenancy law differs by state and by agreement. For decisions about your own bond, check the official body linked above or get advice for your situation.
Keep reading
Victorian renters can put up hooks, swap the shower head or hang their own curtains without asking. At the end of the lease each of those changes has to be reversed or paid for, unless the rental provider agrees in writing or you paid a modification bond. Here is the list, item by item.
Victoria's guidelines draw an unusually precise line through windows: the inside of every window is yours, the outside of ground floor windows is yours, and the outside of anything above that is theirs. Blinds get their own rule again. Faded is wear and tear, stained or ripped is damage. Here is exactly where each line sits, and what it means for the exit report.
Victoria's Residential Tenancies Act says damage does not include fair wear and tear, which it defines as deterioration from reasonable use and natural forces. Consumer Affairs Victoria's Guideline 3 gives side-by-side examples, and VCAT has to weigh the age of an item using the ATO depreciation guide. An 8-year-old carpet is the example CAV uses for one a renter can't be charged to replace.