Deposit Contributors and Bond Assistance in Tasmania: What Landlords Need to Know

What a Deposit Contributor Actually Is

Under Section 3(1) of the Residential Tenancy Act 1997, a deposit contributor is a government entity or charitable organisation that pays all or part of a rental bond on a tenant's behalf. The tenant lives in the property; the contributor funds the bond.

Regulation 4 of the Residential Tenancy Regulations 2025 prescribes the approved contributors in Tasmania:

• Anglicare Tasmania Inc. — provides emergency bond assistance through referral from Homes Tasmania or community intake.
• Loreto Community Housing (formerly Centacare) — supports tenants transitioning from crisis or transitional accommodation.
• Homes Tasmania programs — the state housing authority's bond assistance stream, accessed through Housing Connect intake.

Other organisations, relatives, or friends cannot be registered as deposit contributors in MyBond. Private third-party payments (a parent covering the bond, for example) go through the tenant's MyBond account, not the contributor pathway.

How the MyBond Workflow Changes

When you create a bond lodgement in MyBond for a tenancy with a deposit contributor, the process has one extra step that private-pay bonds do not.

1. You create the lodgement as normal — entering the property details, lease terms, weekly rent, bond amount, and the tenant's Tenant ID.
2. During creation, you select the option to add a deposit contributor and enter the organisation's reference details (name and reference number provided by the contributor).
3. MyBond notifies the contributor organisation directly. The contributor pays the Rental Deposit Authority — the money never passes through your hands or the tenant's.
4. Once cleared funds arrive, the RDA issues a Bond Lodgement Certificate to all three parties: you, the tenant, and the contributor.

The critical difference: you must enter the contributor's details during the initial lodgement creation. If you discover the details were omitted, contact Consumer Affairs Tasmania or MyBond support to ask how to correct the bond record.

End-of-Tenancy Claims With a Contributor on the Bond

Section 29D gives deposit contributors independent statutory rights at the end of a tenancy. When you file a bond claim through MyBond under Section 28, the system notifies the contributor alongside the tenant. The contributor can:

• Consent to your proposed split — the bond is disbursed according to the agreed allocation.
• Dispute your claim — the matter escalates to the Residential Tenancy Commissioner, and the contributor can dispute the bond disbursement under Section 29D.
• Initiate a claim — a contributor can initiate a claim for bond disbursement under Section 29D.

In practice, contributors almost always defer to the tenant unless the claim involves a large deduction. Their presence on the bond means the contributor receives formal notice of claim filings and can initiate or dispute bond disbursement under Section 29D.

Partial Contributions and Split Bonds

A contributor does not always fund the entire bond. In many cases, the contributor covers part of the bond and the tenant pays the balance directly through MyBond. Record the contributor details in MyBond; do not assume that an end-of-tenancy deduction will be allocated in proportion to the original payments.

This matters for deduction claims. At the end of the tenancy, the claim is handled through MyBond, and the contributor has statutory rights to notice and to initiate or dispute the disbursement. Follow the approval process shown for that bond.

What This Means for Your Records

Tenancies with deposit contributors require the same documentation as any other bond — condition reports, receipts, MyBond lodgement within the statutory timeframe — plus one addition: keep a record of the contributor's reference number and the name of the case worker or intake officer. If the tenancy ends in a dispute, the contributor's records of the arrangement (what the tenant was told about their obligations, what condition the property was in at intake) can become relevant evidence before the Commissioner.

Our Tasmania Rental Bond Guide covers the contributor workflow step by step, including the MyBond input screens for adding a deposit contributor, the notification sequence at end of tenancy, and an evidence checklist adapted for three-party bond claims.

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