Rental bonds

Most landlords or agents will ask you to pay a bond when renting a residential property. A bond acts as a security for the performance of the tenant’s obligations under a residential tenancy agreement. Lessors and agents are not required by law to take a bond from a tenant, however, if they do receive a bond, they are required to lodge it with the ACT Revenue Office. Bonds can be any amount up to a maximum of four weeks rent. Lessors and agents must give the tenant a receipt as proof of payment of the bond. Occupancy agreements may require a security deposit be paid. When a refund is requested, a claim may be made by the lessor (also known as the landlord) for damage caused by a tenant (besides normal wear and tear) or outstanding rent owed.

The ACT Revenue Office is responsible for the receipt and management of residential tenancy rental bonds in the ACT under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (the Act) and the Residential Tenancies Regulation 1998 (the Regulation).

The ACT Revenue Office does not provide legal advice to tenants, landlords or real estate agents. The Renting Book is a guide to rental laws in the ACT, other useful resources are listed on the Related Resources page of this site.

If you are the lessor, you will need to pay land tax for both a rented or vacant property that is not your principal place of residence. You may be liable for the foreign ownership surcharge if you are not an Australian citizen or resident.

The Rental Bonds Portal

As part of the ACT Revenue Office’s ongoing commitment to provide faster, more efficient digital services, we have developed an online Rental Bonds Portal.

The portal offers real estate agents and landlords the ability to lodge, manage and request refunds for bonds online. The new 360 view provides a detailed summary of bonds held in the portal, including the bond number, property address and bond status e.g. lodged, refund pending and refunded. The portal will also issue receipts, co-tenant change notices and Bond Refund Notices electronically, improving turnaround times.

Agencies have the added capability of being able to manage their own user accounts and can easily add multiple property managers to administer bonds on behalf of their agency.

Registering for the Rental Bonds Portal

• Agents and lessors can access the portal via the ‘Rental Bonds Portal’ button on the top of this page or by clicking here. This will take you to the portal sign in page.
• Select the ‘Create Account’ button to commence the registration process and follow the on screen prompts.
• Agencies will need to elect an agency administrator to register their account, it is recommended to elect two administrators. The administrators may be a director, principal, an owner or person responsible financially for the agency that has been duly authorised to register the agency’s account.
• You will be required to provide the agency’s ABN, licence number, contact information and bank details in order to complete the registration process.
• Lessors managing their own properties will also need to register for the portal. This should be done by the principal lessor for a property, that is, the person responsible for lodging and managing the bond. The principal lessor will need to supply contact information and bank details to complete the registration process.
• Where there are multiple lessors for a property, only the principal lessor needs to register for the Portal. Additional lessors will be identified during the bond lodgement process but will not have access to view the account.
• Tenants are being introduced to the Portal in beta trial stages, tenants will be notified if they are required to register with ACT Digital and the rental bonds portal via email.