Moving is allowed, and easier than most families assume
The reasons are rarely dramatic: the home is not what it looked like on the tour, the family has moved and wants their parent closer, the fees have climbed, or the care needs have outgrown what the service provides.
Many families give up believing that once someone is in, they are in. That is not the case. A resident can leave, giving the notice set out in the agreement — and while you look, security of tenure protects them where they are. The obstacle is almost never legal. It is the order you do things in.
The rule you never break
Do not give notice until the new place is confirmed in writing.
It is the one genuinely unrecoverable mistake here. Notice given "to get things moving" on the strength of a phone call leaves a frail person with nowhere to go if the new admission slips by three weeks — and the old room will have been filled.
The correct order is always: find, confirm in writing, fix the entry date, then give notice timed to it.
The part that costs money if you get it wrong
The accommodation payment is where a move goes financially right or wrong.
- If your parent paid a refundable accommodation deposit, the balance is refundable when they leave, within legislated timeframes and subject to permitted deductions. Ask, in writing: what is the refund amount, and by what date will it be paid?
- The new home will want its own accommodation payment settled. If the refund from the old home has not arrived yet, there is a gap — and you need to know how the new provider expects it to be bridged before you commit, not after.
- Remember you generally get a period after entry, commonly 28 days, to choose between a lump sum, a daily payment or a combination. A move does not force you to decide that on day one either.
- Accommodation prices differ between homes and are published. Your means assessment position may produce a different result at the new home — check it with Services Australia rather than assuming the numbers carry across.
What carries over and what does not
- The ACAT approval for permanent residential care generally still stands: you do not usually need a fresh assessment simply to move. But if your parent's needs have changed since it was done, a reassessment is worth requesting — it affects what they are approved for.
- The clinical handover must go across complete: care plan, medication chart, diagnoses, risk assessments, wound records, recent GP and specialist letters. Ask for it in writing and check nothing is missing — a thin handover makes the new home hesitate and stretches everything out.
- Any extra or additional service agreement ends with the placement. Check what you are signing up to at the new home rather than assuming it mirrors the old one.
The order, step by step
- Read the resident and accommodation agreements: notice period, refund terms and timeframes.
- Ask the current provider in writing for the refund figure and payment date.
- Approach several homes at once with an up-to-date picture. You can do all of this while your parent stays where they are, without announcing anything.
- Visit, looking specifically at whatever was missing at the current home.
- Get written confirmation of the offer and the entry date.
- Only then give notice, timed to the entry date.
- Organise the handover: clinical records, medication for the first days, personal effects, and tell the GP.
Do you have to tell the current home?
Not while nothing is decided, and many families prefer to look quietly. That is entirely reasonable.
But if the reason for leaving is something the home could fix — a particular service, staffing at certain hours, a fee — it is worth putting that in writing first. Some things do change, and a move is hard on an older person even when it is justified. If you want help having that conversation, the Older Persons Advocacy Network on 1800 700 600 is free and independent.
The practical point
Moving homes rarely runs into a legal obstacle. It runs into sequencing and into the deposit refund — search while the current place is still occupied, get the refund figure and date in writing, secure the new admission on paper, and only then give notice.
The slowest part is the first one. Curalune Care Help gives you the starting point: 3–5 homes that match the real situation within 24 working hours, with contact details, links and a ready-to-send message you can put to all of them at once — without announcing anything to anyone until you have decided. A$109 one-off. Start here
Notice periods and refund terms are set by your resident and accommodation agreements; refund timeframes, accommodation payment rules, means-assessment arrangements and security-of-tenure provisions are set by aged care legislation and are periodically reformed. Confirm the current position with the provider in writing and with Services Australia before committing. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice: consider independent financial advice on the accommodation payment, and contact the Older Persons Advocacy Network on 1800 700 600 for free support. Curalune does not allocate places and cannot guarantee availability.