Tasmania Bond Deductions: What Landlords Can (and Can't) Claim

What You Can Legitimately Deduct

The Residential Tenancy Act 1997 limits bond deductions to four categories where the landlord has suffered an actual financial loss because the tenant breached the lease or the Act:

Unpaid rent — arrears owed up to the lawful termination date. You'll need a complete Section 61 rent ledger showing every payment received throughout the tenancy.

Damage beyond fair wear and tear — damage caused by the tenant or their visitors under Sections 53 and 59. Think plaster holes, smashed door panels, broken window glass or pet-stained carpets.

Cleaning costs — reasonable expenses to restore the property to the baseline cleanliness recorded in the entry condition report. Not "better than when they moved in" — back to the same standard.

Loss from early vacation or abandonment — direct rental loss and reasonable re-letting expenses when a tenant leaves before the fixed term expires, subject to your duty to mitigate by advertising and re-letting promptly.

Fair Wear and Tear: The Line You Can't Cross

Fair wear and tear is the natural deterioration that happens through ordinary daily use. The Residential Tenancy Commissioner will not award bond deductions for:

• Minor paint scuffs and light surface marks on walls
• Worn carpet pile in high-traffic hallways
• Fading or minor fraying of curtains from sunlight
• Tarnished door handles or loose cabinet hinges
• Minor grout discolouration in bathrooms

These are costs of owning a rental property, not tenant liabilities.

The Depreciation Rule

This is where most claims shrink. The RTC applies standard ATO depreciation schedules to damaged items. You cannot claim the full replacement cost of an item that has already used most of its useful life.

An eight-year-old carpet with a 10-year useful life has a residual value of 20%. If a tenant destroys it, you're entitled to that 20% — not the cost of a brand-new carpet. Claiming full replacement cost can amount to betterment, which the Residential Tenancy Commissioner may reduce to the residual value of the original item.

The same logic applies to appliances, blinds, floor coverings and fixtures. Always calculate the depreciated value before submitting a claim. Overstating the amount doesn't just get reduced — it signals to the Commissioner that your evidence is unreliable.

Proof of Actual Financial Loss

The RTC requires evidence of real expenditure, not guesswork:

• Paid tax invoices from tradespeople who've completed the repair
• Binding professional quotes from licensed contractors
• Before-and-after photographs — entry condition report photos compared with exit inspection images

Arbitrary estimates — "I reckon the cleaning will cost $500" — carry no weight. If you haven't obtained a quote or paid for the work, the claim is likely to be rejected.

Cleaning Deductions: The Condition Report Standard

You can deduct cleaning costs only to the extent needed to return the property to the cleanliness standard documented in your Section 26 condition report. If the property was professionally cleaned before the tenancy began and the entry report records that, you can require the same standard at exit.

What you cannot do is hold back bond money because the property isn't spotless by your personal standards. The benchmark is the entry report, not perfection. A tenant who returns the property in the same condition they received it owes nothing for cleaning.

Getting Claims Right

Every deduction needs a paper trail: the entry condition report as your baseline, exit inspection evidence showing the damage, and invoices or quotes proving the cost. Miss any leg of that triangle and the RTC will reduce or dismiss the claim.

Our Tasmania Rental Bond Guide includes depreciation calculation worksheets and an evidence-preparation checklist that keeps deduction claims within the bounds the Commissioner actually enforces.

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