Renew a registration

Renew your registration

Renewing registration helps us make sure providers are still suitable, capable and have capacity to continue to deliver safe and high-quality aged care services.

Starting the renewal process

We ask providers to apply to renew their registration before their current registration period expires.

We send you an invitation that includes:

the renewal timeframes
when you need to apply by
if we do an audit as part of the renewal assessment.

We can send this invitation up to 18 months before your current registration expires. This depends on the size of your organisation, the registration categories and audit requirements.

Confirming your plans

After you receive the invitation, you must:

confirm that you plan to renew your registration
tell us if you plan to leave the aged care sector.

Once you have confirmed you intend to renew in categories 4, 5 and/or 6, you’ll need to pay an audit fee (if applicable) and we’ll arrange an audit against the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.

Applying to renew

After you confirm that you want to renew your registration, based on your renewal timeframes, you must submit your application for renewal of registration and pay a fee (if applicable).

Your application must:

be submitted before the date stated in your invitation to renew letter
show that you continue to meet:
- the general registration requirements
- the specific requirements for each category you’re registered in.

If you don’t apply before the date specified in your invitation to renew, your registration will expire at the end of the registration expiry date, and you will not be able to deliver funded aged care services. You will still be required to meet the conditions of your registration for stopping services to older people. This includes telling us that you are stopping service delivery and your plans to manage continuity of care for people received aged care services.

When applying to renew your registration, you must also describe the type and extent of your relationship with any associated providers. Our regulatory bulletin explains your requirements when using associated providers in the delivery of aged care services.

You can find out more about provider obligations and conditions of registration on Provider obligations and conditions of registration.

What we assess

When we assess renewal applications, we look at your:

audit outcomes (for providers in categories 4, 5 or 6)
compliance history and enforcement actions, including compliance with any Commonwealth, State or Territory law where you operate.
notifications, complaints and risk-based monitoring during the registration period
financial, governance and operational capability.

We can also ask you for more information as part of our assessment.

To make a decision, we consider:

if you continue to meet the registration requirements of the new Aged Care Act 2024
how you have performed during your registration period.

Outcome of your application

After assessing your renewal application, we can decide to:

renew your registration for a new set period (usually 3 years)
renew your registration with extra conditions
refuse to renew your registration if you have not met requirements.

If we decide to refuse your renewal, we’ll:

follow procedural fairness, which means we will:
- tell you that we plan to refuse the registration renewal
- give you an opportunity to respond
- carefully consider all the information we have before we make a final decision
work with you to manage risks to older people and make sure you can provide ongoing care.

A decision to refuse a registration renewal is a reviewable decision. That means you can apply for us to review the decision.

You can find out more, on Request reconsideration of a reviewable decision.