ACT Urgent Repairs: Landlord Obligations and Response Times

24 Hours Is the Line

When a tenant reports an urgent repair, the landlord or property manager must respond and arrange rectification within 24 hours. That's not a guideline — it's the statutory standard under the Standard Residential Tenancy Terms.

If the landlord or nominated trade contact cannot be reached, or fails to act within a reasonable timeframe, the tenant may arrange an urgent repair directly with a qualified tradesperson. The cost cap puts you on the back foot financially.

What Counts as Urgent

Clause 60 of the Standard Terms defines urgent repairs as faults that compromise safety, security, or essential services:

• Burst water service or serious roof leak
• Blocked or broken toilet system
• Gas leak or dangerous electrical fault
• Flooding, storm, or fire damage
• Failure of essential gas, electricity, or water supply
• Breakdown of fixed appliances used for hot water, cooking, heating, or laundry
• Any fault that makes the premises unsafe or insecure

The common thread: the tenant can't safely wait weeks for a fix. A dripping kitchen tap isn't urgent. A complete hot water system failure in winter is.

The Tenant Self-Repair Right

Under Clause 61, if the landlord or their nominated trade contact can't be reached or fails to act within a reasonable timeframe, the tenant is authorised to arrange urgent repairs directly with a qualified tradesperson. The cost cap: 5% of the total annual rent.

On a property renting at $600 per week, that's 5% of $31,200 = $1,560 the tenant can spend without your prior approval. You must reimburse the tenant for reasonable repair costs upon receipt of trade invoices.

This is why having a reliable after-hours trade contact matters. If the tenant cannot reach you or your nominated contact, or no action is taken within a reasonable timeframe, the tenant may arrange the urgent repair within the statutory cost cap and seek reimbursement for reasonable costs.

Non-Urgent Repairs: The 4-Week Window

Anything that doesn't fall into the urgent category — a broken cupboard hinge, a cracked tile, a non-essential appliance issue — must be completed within four weeks of the tenant's written notification.

The tenant must put the request in writing. The four-week clock starts from receipt of that written notice, not from a verbal mention during a routine inspection.

If repairs aren't completed within four weeks, the tenant can apply to ACAT for a repair order, a rent reduction compensating for lost amenity, or both.

Access Rules for Repairs

Entering the property to carry out repairs requires at least 24 hours' written notice to the tenant. Entry must occur between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm, Monday to Saturday, excluding public holidays — unless the tenant consents to another time.

The exception: emergencies. If entry is necessary to prevent imminent injury or property destruction, no advance notice is required.

Routine inspections — which are capped at two per year — are a separate access category requiring seven days' notice. Don't confuse the two. Repair access and inspection access have different notice periods and different purposes.

Documenting Everything

Keep a repair response log: the tenant's notification, your response timestamp, the trade booking, the completed work, and the invoice. Under ACT tenancy law, all records relating to minimum housing standards must be retained for 12 months after the tenancy ends.

The ACT Rental Minimum Standards Guide includes a repair response log template that tracks urgent and non-urgent requests from notification through to completion — so you have the documentation ready if anything escalates to ACAT.

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