Two systems, told separately
DHOAS and Defence housing are run by different bodies, and a change has to be reported to each.
Defence housing
Defence Housing Australia provides housing and related services to ADF members and their families. It manages housing, tenancy services, allowances and property care in line with Defence policy, and the rules on housing assistance are in Chapter 7 of Defence’s pay and conditions manual. Changes go to DHA through its Online Services.
DHOAS
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs runs the scheme for Defence. Changes to service, the loan, the property or personal circumstances go to DVA on a Change of Circumstances form.
DHA says that while a member receives a subsidised housing benefit, changes in their domestic circumstances must be reported as soon as practicable, because those circumstances are what the benefit is worked out on.
The suitable own home rule
The manual’s guidance on a suitable own home comes down to four points.
A suitable home where you are posted ends housing assistance there
A member with a suitable own home in their housing benefit location is not eligible for housing assistance while living at that location.
Buying one ends it too, unless the posting is protected
Buying a suitable own home in the housing benefit location stops eligibility for housing assistance, unless the Chief of the Defence Force has decided it should continue until the posting ends.
A home bought with DHOAS counts
A home bought using a benefit under the scheme is taken to be a suitable own home, and stays one for all later postings to that location.
A home can stop being suitable
The manual sets out circumstances in which a home becomes unsuitable, and then other housing assistance may be available. One of its divisions deals with a home that may be unsuitable because it is rented out.
Defence’s own page on Service residences puts the practical result plainly: owning a home in your posting location may affect eligibility, and if DHA decides the home is suitable, you cannot get a Service residence.
Telling DHA you are buying
Under the manual, DHA must be told when a member owns, buys or sells a home in or near their housing benefit location. DHA’s own guidance goes further in two ways.
- It covers family purchases and homes you will not live in. DHA assesses a property bought by a member or any of their recognised dependants, whether or not anyone plans to live in it.
- It wants notice. DHA asks for at least 28 days to decide whether the property is suitable and how contributions or allowances change, and asks to be contacted right after the contract is signed, by adding the property under My Account, then My Profile, in Online Services.
Moving out of a Service residence into your own home is done the same way: DHA asks for an enquiry through Online Services giving the date you plan to leave and why. On the DHOAS side, the first subsidy payment needs you living in the home, as the guide to buying with the scheme explains.
Posted after buying
DHOAS asks for 12 months of living in the home, and a posting can cut that short. The scheme treats the timing of the posting as the deciding fact.
| When the posting comes | What happens to the subsidy |
|---|---|
| Known before moving in, with a move due within a year of the first payment | The subsidy is paid until you leave the home. Leaving before 12 months breaks the occupancy condition. |
| After moving in, in good faith, expecting to stay 12 months | The subsidy can continue after you relocate, if you send DVA a Change of Circumstances form with a copy of the posting order before you move. DVA then reduces the occupancy requirement so payments are not interrupted. |
| After moving in, but DVA is told only after the move | The subsidy may be stopped or suspended until an exemption is arranged, and overpayments may have to be repaid. |
| After the 12 months are done | The subsidy continues whether or not you live there, and the home can be rented out; the scheme recommends independent tax advice first. |
A dependant who keeps living in the home can meet the occupancy rule while the member is away. The manual ties the rule to the home’s location: a home bought with DHOAS is a suitable own home for every later posting to that location, and the limit on rent allowance and Service residences is about a subsidised home at the posting location. What assistance applies at a different location is assessed by DHA under the manual.
If the home is rented out, the scheme’s page on fringe benefits tax points to a declaration Defence can use so the subsidy does not appear on the payment summary; details are on its fringe benefits tax page.
HPAS and HPSEA alongside DHOAS
The manual says DHOAS does not displace two other conditions of service: the Home Purchase Assistance Scheme (HPAS) and the Home Purchase or Sale Expenses Allowance (HPSEA). The scheme’s own site points members to Defence’s pay and conditions pages for both.
- HPAS is paid only once during service in the Permanent Forces, and if both partners are Permanent members, only one of them can put it towards a single home. The manual’s guidance is that the member must be on continuous full-time service and the home’s location must stay their housing benefit or family benefit location for at least a year.
- HPSEA is available only to members who have already received HPAS. Defence says signing a contract to buy before receiving the official posting order rules out HPSEA for that home.
- DHOAS approval comes first. Defence’s housing page puts the order plainly: DHOAS approval first, then the loan application to one of the scheme’s lenders. The scheme’s own proof of eligibility, needed to take out a DHOAS loan, is the subsidy certificate, covered in the subsidy certificate guide.
What happens to DHA housing and DHOAS when service ends is in the guide to leaving the ADF.