Last month, Premier John Brumby announced the State Government would adopt all 32 recommendations made by the Rooming House Standards Taskforce to raise the bar on rooming houses.

Changes include mandatory registration of operators and home owners, new health and safety regulations, including smoke alarms and locks on bathroom doors, and a $77million investment in rooming houses and crisis accommodation.

Other changes will prevent Centrelink payments being made directly to operators who are not registered rooming house providers - a scheme that previously allowed dodgy operators to flourish in middle and outer Melbourne suburbs.

The announcement came as almost a dozen owners of unregistered rooming houses in Clayton were ordered by Monash Council to bring their homes up to health and safety regulations.

Many of the inspected properties were run by the Victorian Accommodation Centre, which the Journal has previously reported runs many unregistered rooming houses in Monash.

The company, which has strong links to convicted criminals John Pisani, George Maatouk, Arthur Oshan and Joe Tomarchio, controls more than 200 homes across Melbourne, many of which are in appalling condition.

Mayor Paul Klisaris said the homes would be subject to ongoing routine inspections by the council's building officers and environmental health officers. A spokesman for Consumer Affairs Victoria said its rooming house blitz team had inspected 138 unregistered rooming houses in Victoria since July.

CAV said it was targeting rogue operators in a manner that minimised the impact on vulnerable residents who often had nowhere else to go.

Details: www.consumer.vic.gov.au/roomingho uses or 1300 365 814.