Can you own a home and still get SDA?

Does owning a home count against you?

Not on its own. The NDIS is not means tested, so your income and assets are not part of the decision. SDA eligibility depends on your support needs. The NDIA must be satisfied that you have an extreme functional impairment or very high support needs, as the SDA Rules define them, and that SDA together with your other supports would suit you better than other supports alone. Both tests usually involve a very high need for person-to-person support.

Where you live now still matters. Before it funds SDA, the NDIA looks at other options, including supports such as home modifications that could make your current home work. If modifying the home you own would meet your needs, the NDIA will weigh that first. Our guide on whether SDA funding covers home modifications explains how the two supports differ.

The NDIA decides using evidence about your support needs, such as reports from allied health professionals. The steps are in how to apply for SDA.

What SDA funding pays for

SDA funding is for the home itself, the bricks and mortar. It is paid to the SDA provider. Support workers are paid from other funding in your plan, such as SIL.

You still pay a reasonable rent contribution and your day to day living costs, such as electricity. See how the reasonable rent contribution works.

Can you or your family own the SDA home?

Yes. The SDA Rules expect that the provider will not always own the home. When a provider applies to enrol a home it does not own, the application must name the owner. The owner must agree in writing that the provider can enrol it and that the owner will not enrol it separately. The Rules do not limit who the owner can be, so this can include a family member.

An owner who is not the provider is paid by the SDA provider under a commercial agreement between the two of them. The NDIA is not a party to that agreement, and that owner cannot claim SDA payments from the NDIA.

A participant can also be their own SDA provider. The Rules refer to the home 'of an eligible participant who intends to provide SDA to themselves as an SDA provider', and the enrolment application asks a participant applicant whether they will live in the home. The NDIA can only enrol a home for an applicant who is registered to provide SDA, so you would need that registration with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

What the home and the provider have to meet

Under the SDA Rules, SDA is funded only when an SDA provider provides it at an enrolled home where you live. You also need a private bedroom and access to a bathroom that meet the design category in your plan.

To enrol a home, the provider must certify that it is a permanent dwelling that meets the building codes and laws that apply to it. It must be meant as long-term accommodation for at least one eligible participant. The provider also needs suitable capacity and experience, and once the home is enrolled it must be kept in a good state of repair.

Design gets checked as well. A new build has to meet the minimum design requirements for a design category other than Basic, and the enrolment application needs certification of the SDA design features.

NDIS-funded home modifications can stop a home being enrolled

This matters if the NDIS has already paid to modify the home. The enrolment application asks whether the NDIS has funded home modifications for the dwelling after 1 December 2016. The applicant must certify it has not, within a 10 year period for complex home modifications and a 5 year period for other home modifications.

If the NDIS has funded modifications to the home within those periods, the provider cannot give that certification and the NDIA will not enrol the home. Check the dates with the NDIA before you plan around it.

Before you buy, build or sign anything

The NDIA's guidance on investing in SDA says it carries risk and that returns are not guaranteed. It recommends due diligence and independent legal and financial advice before you commit.

If a relative owns the home or runs the supports, ask the provider how it handles conflicts of interest. Under the NDIS Commission's SDA practice standards, registered SDA providers must have policies for this and must manage and document any conflict. Where one provider gives you both SDA and other supports, you get separate service agreements. If family members want to live in the home with you, read can family live with you in SDA.

Common questions

Sources

We check the facts in this guide against these official sources before it goes live.

• NDIS - What is the National Disability Insurance Scheme?
• NDIS (Specialist Disability Accommodation) Rules 2020, ss 11 to 14
• NDIS Our Guidelines - Does SDA meet the NDIS funding criteria for you?
• NDIS Our Guidelines - SDA eligibility
• NDIS - Guide to providing SDA; What is SDA
• NDIS - What is specialist disability accommodation (SDA)
• NDIS - Investment in specialist disability accommodation (SDA)
• SDA Rules 2020 s 26(2)(c); NDIS - How to enrol a home as SDA
• NDIS Commission - Supplementary module: Specialist disability accommodation

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