Prescribed Accommodation

Under the Public Health and Wellbeing (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations 2020, prescribed accommodation businesses include;

• Hotels and motels
• Hostels
• Student dormitories
• Holiday camps
• Rooming houses
• Residential accommodation
• Labour hire accommodation

These prescribed accommodation premises must be registered with their local council.  

Established accommodation businesses

The registration period for all prescribed accommodation premises is 1 January to 31 December annually. Prescribed accommodation premises will be notified in September/October of each year that your premises registration is due for renewal. All businesses must be renewed by 31 December in order to continue trading from 1 January the following year.

If you are a proprietor and want to make changes to your existing premises, or wish to transfer a business registration to a new proprietor please contact our Environmental Health Unit.

Prescribed accommodation providers are required to meet hygiene, maintenance and other standards and requirements to minimise public health risk that may arise from shared use of facilities, high turnover of occupants and/or overcrowding.

The objective of the regulations is to set out the standards necessary to minimise the public health risks associated with prescribed accommodation.

New class of labour hire accommodation

A change to the regulations defines a new class of labour hire accommodation.

Labour hire accommodation means any house, building, structure or site (including any shared facilities on a site), whether temporary or permanent, used to provide accommodation for a worker under, or in connection with, a labour hire arrangement with that worker. This regulation applies when four or more workers are residing in the one building.

The definition also includes examples of common labour hire situations. The new class of labour hire accommodation is designed to be used only if another class of prescribed accommodation does not apply.  For example, a hostel that provides accommodation to both backpackers and labour hire workers should be registered as a hostel.

There have also been changes to the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 to strengthen the definition of prescribed accommodation and proprietor in relation to labour hire accommodation.

What the changes mean

The changes mean that proprietors of labour hire accommodation will be required to:

• Register their labour hire accommodation with the local council under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008
• Meet cleanliness, maintenance and other standards under the Public Health and Wellbeing (Prescribed Accommodation) Regulations 2020, which intend to minimise public health risks that may arise from shared use of facilities and overcrowding.

An information sheet for labour hire accommodation providers can be found here