Urgent Repairs in a NZ Rental: What Actually Counts

A tenant calls at 10pm. Something has failed. You have to decide, in about a minute, whether this is a callout tonight, a job for tomorrow morning, or a job for next week. Get it wrong in one direction and you pay emergency rates for a dripping tap. Get it wrong in the other and you are liable for the tenant's plumber, the water damage, and a Tribunal finding.

There is no official list, and that is the first thing to know

People search for "list of urgent repairs NZ" expecting a schedule like the ones some Australian states publish. New Zealand does not have one. The Residential Tenancies Act 1986 uses two thresholds instead, and they do different jobs:

• Emergency (s48(2)(a)) governs entry. In an emergency the landlord may enter with no notice, at any hour.
• Serious and urgent (s45(1)(d)) governs money. Where disrepair is likely to cause injury to persons or property, or is otherwise serious and urgent, the landlord must compensate the tenant for reasonable repair expenses, provided the disrepair was not caused by the tenant's own breach and the tenant notified the landlord or made a reasonable attempt to.

So "is this urgent?" is really two questions: can I go in right now, and who is going to end up paying.

A practical triage

The tiers below are a working framing, not statutory categories. They reflect how these cases are usually treated in practice.

Tier 1: act tonight

Anything with a live safety or escalating-damage element.

• Gas leak, electrical fault with burning smell, sparking or exposed wiring
• Burst pipe, mains leak, active flooding, sewage backing up
• Roof failure letting water in during rain
• The property is insecure: a door or window that will not lock after a break-in
• Total loss of water, or of power, where the cause is the property rather than the network
• Non-working smoke alarms, which are the landlord's duty under s45(1)(ba) and the smoke alarm regulations

Tier 2: next working day

• No hot water, or heating failure in winter. The healthy homes heating standard makes a dead heat pump in the main living room a compliance issue, not just a comfort one
• Oven, cooktop or fridge failure where the landlord supplies the appliance
• A single blocked toilet in a property with only one
• A leak that is contained but ongoing
• Ventilation failure such as a dead extractor fan, which engages the ventilation standard

Tier 3: schedule it

• Dripping taps, sticking doors and windows, worn seals
• Cosmetic damage, tired paint, marked carpet
• Fence and garden work with no safety element
• Appliance faults where a working alternative exists in the property

What getting it wrong costs

The financial risk sits in s45(1)(d), and it is the third limb that decides most disputes: the tenant must have given notice, or made a reasonable attempt to. That limb is the one you control.

If a tenant has a logged channel that reaches you, and you respond, you keep control of the job: your tradie, your rate, your scope. If a tenant cannot reach anyone at 11pm with water coming through a light fitting, they are entitled to act, and you inherit whoever they found and whatever it cost, plus any damage that happened while they were trying to reach you.

Being reachable is not customer service. It is a cost control.

Entry, quickly

In a genuine emergency you may enter immediately with no notice. For everything else, repairs and maintenance entry needs 24 hours' notice with the reason stated, between 8am and 7pm (s48(2)(d)). Routine inspections are a different rule again: 48 hours to 14 days, once every four weeks. Tenancy Services covers this on its access page.

What each side should do

Tenants: report it in writing the moment you find it, even if you also phone. Section 40(1)(d) requires notification as soon as possible after discovery, and a dated message is what proves you did. Take photos. Do not stop paying rent: that creates a separate breach and weakens an otherwise strong position.

Landlords: acknowledge the report the same day even if the fix is a week away. Most Tribunal findings on repairs turn on silence rather than delay. A dated "received, booking a plumber for Thursday" is worth more than a fast fix nobody recorded.

Where RentManager fits

The triage above only works if the report reaches you and gets a timestamp. In RentManager the tenant raises the request from their portal with photos, you see it in one queue with everything else, you approve the spend and assign a tradie, and the tradie gets the address and photos directly. Each transition is dated, so the s45(1)(d) question of whether you were told, and when, is answered by the record.

Need a tradie in the first place? The tradie directory lists trades by region. More guides are in the Landlord Hub, and the money side is covered in who pays for rental repairs.

Common questions

Is there an official list of urgent repairs in New Zealand?

No. Unlike some Australian states, the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 contains no schedule of urgent repairs. It uses the test of whether the disrepair is likely to cause injury to persons or property, or is otherwise serious and urgent, which is judged on the facts of each case.

Does no hot water count as urgent in NZ?

Usually yes, particularly in winter or where a household includes children, elderly or unwell people. It is not automatic: a failure fixed the same day is unlikely to be treated the same as one left over a long weekend.

Can a landlord enter without notice for an emergency?

Yes. Section 48(2)(a) allows entry in any case of emergency with no notice and no time restriction. That is a narrow ground meant for genuine emergencies such as fire, flooding or a gas leak, not for convenience.

General information about the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, current as at August 2026. Not legal advice.