Consequences of an Apprehended Violence Order
If the Court makes a Final Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) against you, it may affect your:
Criminal history
If a Final Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) is made, it will be recorded on your criminal history, but won't be recorded on your criminal record and it won't appear in a criminal record check.
However, if you breach the AVO and convicted by a court of that offence, the offence will be listed on your criminal record. A copy of your criminal history will be given to the Court when you are making a bail application, or are being sentenced for an offence.
A record of the AVO will be kept on the police database.
For more information, see Consequences of breaching an Apprehended Violence Order.
Family Law matter
An Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) may affect when you can see your children.
For more
information, see Apprehended Violence Orders and Family Law.
If you are concerned that having
an AVO will stop you seeing your children, you should get legal advice.
Firearms licence
If the police enter your home to investigate an alleged domestic violence offence, they must ask you whether you own any firearms. If you say yes, they must take your firearms. They can also take any other weapons or other dangerous things that they find.
If the police believe that there firearms at your home, even if you have told them you don’t have any, they can apply for a search warrant to enter your home to search for any firearms.
If you have been charged with a domestic violence offence, the police must suspend your firearms licence. The police must also suspend your firearms licence if they have reasonable cause to believe that you committed or threatened to commit a domestic violence offence.
If an Interim or Final Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) is made against you, your firearms licence will be automatically suspended.
If your firearms licence has been suspended or revoked, you must immediately surrender your firearms and licence to the police. If you don’t, police may seize your firearms and charge you with an offence. If your AVO has an order that prohibits you from possessing a firearm, you may be charged with breaching your AVO, which is a criminal offence.
If an AVO is made against you, your firearms will have to be disposed of or destroyed. You can ask the police to dispose of your firearms with a firearms dealer or you can ask the police to destroy them. If you do nothing, the police will destroy your firearms.
Applying for a new firearms licence
If an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) was made against you for a specific period of time and your firearms licence was revoked, you will have to wait 10 years until you can apply for a new licence. You will need to show that you are a 'fit and proper person' to have a firearms licence.
If an AVO was made against you for an indefinite period of time, you won’t be able to apply for a new firearms licence unless the AVO is varied or revoked. If the duration of the AVO is reduced, you will have to wait for 10 years after the AVO has finished to apply for a new licence.
If the Court has revoked an AVO made against you, you may be able to apply for a firearms licence. For more information, see Varying (changing) or revoking (cancelling) an Apprehended Violence Order.
If the application for an AVO is withdrawn, and the Interim AVO is no longer in force, your firearms licence will no longer be suspended.
If you have surrendered your licence and firearms to the police, you may be able to get them back from the police.
Security licence
An Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) may affect you if you have, or want to apply for, a security licence. If the licence is a Class 1F or P1F (a licence which allows you to carry a firearm), you may not be able to work under that licence, because your firearms licence will have been suspended or cancelled.
A security licence may also be cancelled, or an application for a security licence rejected, if an AVO is made against you and if the Commissioner of Police believes that you are not a 'fit and proper person' to hold a security licence.
If you breach an AVO and you are found guilty of that breach, your security licence may be cancelled, or your application for a security licence rejected, particularly if the breach involves assault, stalking or intimidation.
Ability to work with children
A person who works or volunteers in child-related work will need to apply to the Office of the Children's Guardian for a Working With Children Check. This involves a national criminal record check as well as other checks.
As a result of a Working With Children Check a person will be cleared to work with children for five years or barred from working with children. There is on-going monitoring for new records during the five years.
Usually having an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) will not stop you being cleared to work with children, but it is possible in some cases that an AVO may be considered in a Working With Children Check.
For more information, see 
Working with Children Check on the Office of the Children's Guardian website.
Rental property
If you and the person in need of protection (PINOP) are co-tenants of a rental property, an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) may affect your tenancy.
If an AVO is made against you that includes an exclusion order, you must find somewhere else to live.
An exclusion order is an order that prohibits you from living or going to the rental property. If you have an exclusion order it will be under the heading ‘Orders about where you cannot go’.
The exclusion order must identify the tenancy address.
If a Provisional, Interim or Final AVO is made against you that includes an exclusion order, the PINOP can immediately change the locks to the property.
If a Final AVO is made against you with an exclusion order, you will be automatically removed from the lease.
If the PINOP was not listed on the lease, they can ask to have the lease transferred into their name.
If a Final AVO is made without an exclusion order, the PINOP can apply to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) for an order to terminate your tenancy.
For more information about how an AVO may impact on your rental agreement, see Domestic violence on the Tenants’ Union of NSW website.