Moving residents between residential aged care rooms

When can residents move rooms?

A resident can move rooms within the aged care home if:

• the resident requests it
• the resident is consulted and agrees to move rooms
• an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) or at least 2 eligible health practitioners decide it’s necessary for medical reasons
• the resident was receiving care under a specialist dementia care agreement, which a clinical advisory committee has determined they no longer need
• the place the resident occupies becomes an extra service place and they don’t want to pay the fee
• you need to repair or improve the room and the resident has the right to return to it.

The criteria for moving residents and who is an eligible health practitioner is in Division 2 of the User Rights Principles 2014. This information must be set out in the resident’s accommodation agreement.

Charging for the new room

You cannot ask the resident to pay a higher accommodation cost if:

• the move is not voluntary
• they are on pre-1 July 2014 fee arrangements
• they are on post-1 July 2014 fee arrangements and pay an accommodation contribution.

Otherwise, you can ask the resident to pay a new negotiated room price up to the maximum published room price on the day they move.

Changing the accommodation agreement

You must vary the resident’s accommodation agreement with the new room service and fee arrangements.

If the resident pays more for the new room, they can choose to pay the extra amount as:

• a lump sum, refundable accommodation deposit (RAD)
• rental-style payments called a daily accommodation payment (DAP)
• a combination of both.

To work out the DAP amount for a resident who voluntarily moves rooms, use the maximum permissible interest rate (MPIR) current on the day they agreed to a new room price.

If the resident has paid a RAD and the room cost is lower, you must refund any excess balance to the resident.

Read more about managing accommodation payments and contributions.