Careless damage

The tenant can be held partially responsible for damage caused by careless behaviour, but this is capped so that there is a limit on how much a tenant can be held liable to pay.

The limits to the tenant’s liability for careless damage are: 

• If a tenant or their guests carelessly damage the property, the tenant is liable to pay for the cost of repairs, up to an amount equal to four weeks’ rent or the landlord’s insurance excess, whichever amount is lower. (This amount is described here as the cost limit.) 
• If the tenant is in state or community housing and has income-related rent, the cost limit is up to an amount equal to four weeks’ rent or the landlord’s insurance excess, whichever amount is lower (s 49B(3)(b)(i) RTA).) 
• If the landlord doesn’t have insurance, the cost limit is four weeks’ rent. 
• The cost limit also applies to unintentional or careless damage caused by the tenant when removing a fixture (ss 42(6) and 49B(6) RTA). A fixture is something that is fixed in position to the building or the ground, such as a heat pump, or a bracket to secure a bookshelf to the wall.
• The landlord can’t ask the tenant for, or accept, any more money for the damage than the cost limit (s 49D RTA).
• If the tenant and landlord agree, the tenant can do the repair work themselves, up to a value that isn’t more than the cost limit (s 49B(5) RTA). 
• The landlord’s insurance company can’t chase the tenant for any money it pays out to the landlord for repairs (s 49C(1) RTA). If the nature of the tenant’s careless damage is something which means that the landlord’s insurer won’t pay out, the tenant is still only liable up to the cost limit (s 49B(4)(a) RTA).  

Sometimes a tenant causes damage, even when they are being careful. The law isn’t clear whether accidental damage comes under “careless damage”, ie, the tenant is liable, up to the cost limit (see above), or whether tenants are not liable for accidents at all.   

The Tenancy Tribunal has said that these things were accidental damage, and the tenant was not liable:

1. A tenant knocked over a hot iron onto a carpet, then immediately picked it back up. It melted the carpet. (Tenancy Tribunal Order 4251455 at para [16].)
2. A tenant hung a heavy bag on a command hook that had been installed by the landlord. The landlord hadn’t told the tenant how much weight the hook could take. The hook pulled off the wall and damaged it. (Tenancy Tribunal Order 4263906 at [10].
3. A tenant was using a blender stick when it fell out of her hands and damaged a stone benchtop. (Tenancy Tribunal Order 4272505, 4272034)  
4. A tenant dropped a coffee cup onto a glass ceramic cooktop and cracked it. Tenancy Tribunal Order 4261406.