Rental Repairs in NZ: Who Pays, and How Fast

Most repair arguments in New Zealand rentals are not really about the repair. They are about who was supposed to do what, and when, and nobody wrote it down. This article sets out what the law actually requires of each side, what it does not, and how to keep the paper trail that decides the argument if it ever gets to the Tenancy Tribunal.

What the landlord must do

The core duty is in section 45(1)(b) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986. The landlord must:

provide and maintain the premises in a reasonable state of repair having regard to the age and character of the premises and the period during which the premises are likely to remain habitable and available for residential purposes

Two things follow from that wording, and both are regularly misunderstood.

"Reasonable" is judged against the age and character of the property. A 1920s villa is not held to the standard of a new build. That is a genuine defence, and it is not a licence to leave things broken.

There is no fixed deadline anywhere in the Act. People search for "how many days does a landlord have to fix something in NZ" and there is no number to give them. The obligation is to maintain the property in a reasonable state of repair, so the timeframe is whatever is reasonable for that particular fault. No hot water in July is not the same as a sticking wardrobe door.

Alongside that sit the landlord's other repair-adjacent duties in the same section:

• s45(1)(a) provide the premises in a reasonable state of cleanliness at the start of the tenancy
• s45(1)(ba) comply with the smoke alarm regulations
• s45(1)(bb) comply with the healthy homes standards
• s45(1)(c) comply with all building, health and safety requirements under any enactment that apply to the premises

What the tenant must do

Section 40(1)(d) requires the tenant to "notify the landlord, as soon as possible after discovery, of any damage to the premises, or of the need for any repairs".

That duty is doing more work than tenants realise. A small leak reported the day it appears is a plumber's callout. The same leak reported four months later, after the floor has rotted, is a much larger bill and a much harder conversation about who is responsible for the consequential damage.

Tenants must also keep the property reasonably clean and tidy (s40(1)(c)) and must not intentionally or carelessly damage it (s40(2)(a)).

Who pays for what

Situation	Who pays
Fair wear and tear (worn carpet, tired paint, aging appliances)	Landlord
Things failing with age (hot water cylinder, oven element)	Landlord
Healthy homes and smoke alarm compliance work	Landlord
Careless damage by the tenant or their guests	Tenant, capped at the lesser of the insurance excess or 4 weeks' rent
Intentional damage by the tenant or their guests	Tenant, no cap
Damage by an unknown third party (for example a burglary)	Landlord, via insurance

The careless-damage cap comes from the 2019 amendments that followed the Holler v Osaki line of cases. It is per incident, not per tenancy, and it is the lesser of the two figures, which in practice is usually the excess.

When a tenant can fix it and send the bill

This is the part most often quoted wrongly. Section 45(1)(d) requires the landlord to compensate the tenant for reasonable repair expenses, but only where all of the following are true:

1. the state of disrepair arose other than through the tenant breaching the tenancy agreement; and
2. it is likely to cause injury to persons or property, or is otherwise serious and urgent; and
3. the tenant gave the landlord notice of the disrepair, or made a reasonable attempt to.

All three limbs must be met. A tenant who replaces a dishwasher without telling anyone has no claim. A tenant who cannot reach you at 11pm with water coming through a light fitting, and calls an emergency plumber, very likely does.

The practical lesson for landlords is that being contactable is a financial control. The third limb is the one you influence: if a tenant can always reach a logged channel, "made a reasonable attempt to notify" resolves in your favour and you keep control of who does the work and what it costs.

Getting a tradie in

Entry for repairs is 24 hours' notice, not the 48 hours people remember from inspections. Under s48(2)(d) the landlord may enter to carry out necessary repairs or maintenance between 8am and 7pm on any day, after giving the tenant notice of the entry and the reason for it at least 24 hours beforehand.

The other grounds worth knowing:

• Emergency: no notice required at all (s48(2)(a))
• Routine inspection: 48 hours to 14 days' notice, 8am to 7pm, no more than once every 4 weeks (s48(2)(b))
• Healthy homes work: 24 hours (s48(2)(cb))
• Smoke alarm work: 24 hours (s48(2)(ca))

Tenancy Services sets the same rules out on its landlord access page. Give the notice in writing and state the reason: for repairs entry the Act requires notice of the entry and what it is for, so "we're coming Thursday" is not enough on its own.

If it goes wrong

Neither side should escalate straight to the Tribunal. The ladder is:

1. Write it down. A dated message describing the fault, with photos.
2. 14-day notice to remedy. Either party can issue one for a breach of the Act or the agreement.
3. Free mediation through Tenancy Services, which resolves most repair disputes without a hearing.
4. Tenancy Tribunal, currently a $28 application fee.

What decides these cases is almost never the repair itself. It is whether you can show the date the fault was reported, what you did, and when. A screenshot of a text thread is weak evidence. A dated log with the tradie assignment and the completion note attached is strong.

How RentManager handles this

Maintenance in RentManager is built around exactly the evidence problem above, and it runs across all three parties:

• Tenants raise a request from their own portal, with photos, and see its status change. No lost texts, and the report is timestamped the moment it arrives, which is what s40(1)(d) turns on.
• Landlords get the request in one queue, approve the spend, and assign a tradie. Costs land against the property, so they flow through to your end-of-year expense reporting instead of being reconstructed from a shoebox in April.
• Tradies get the job with the address, the contact and the photos, and mark it done.

Every step is dated, so a year later the answer to "when did you first tell me about the leak" is a record rather than an argument. If you do not have a tradie for a job, our tradie directory lists trades by region.

More NZ landlord guides, organised by where you are in the tenancy, are in the Landlord Hub.

Common questions

How long does a landlord have to fix something in NZ?

There is no single statutory deadline. The Residential Tenancies Act requires the landlord to maintain the premises in a reasonable state of repair, so the timeframe is whatever is reasonable for that fault: hours for a burst pipe or no hot water in winter, days for a broken oven, longer for cosmetic work. What matters if it is ever disputed is that you responded promptly and kept moving.

Can a tenant withhold rent until a repair is done?

No. Withholding rent is a breach of the tenancy in its own right and puts the tenant at risk of a notice for rent arrears, even when the underlying complaint is genuine. The correct routes are a 14-day notice to remedy, free Tenancy Services mediation, or a Tenancy Tribunal application.

Can a tenant get a repair done and bill the landlord?

Yes, in narrow circumstances. Under s45(1)(d) the landlord must compensate the tenant for reasonable repair costs where the disrepair was not caused by the tenant breaching the agreement, it is likely to cause injury to people or property or is otherwise serious and urgent, and the tenant told the landlord or made a reasonable attempt to. Routine or cosmetic work does not qualify.

Who pays if the tenant broke it?

If a tenant, or their guest, damages the property carelessly, the tenant is liable up to the lesser of the landlord's insurance excess or four weeks' rent. Intentional damage is not capped. Fair wear and tear is always the landlord's cost.

This article is general information about how the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 works, current as at August 2026. It is not legal advice for your situation.