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Station 3 of 7 · Guide 3 of 6

Is a broken lock in a rental an urgent repair?

What each state calls a lock fault that cannot wait, who has to be told about it, and who may call the repairer when nobody answers.

The plan, full width: the wall edge to edge, station 3 lit, the other stations dimmed and numbered OUTSIDE INSIDE Station 1: Someone may be in the house: what do the police say to do? 1 Station 2: Locked out, or the keys are gone: who might hold a spare, and what about the old ones? 2 Station 3, this guide: Is a broken lock in a rental an urgent repair? 3 A lock that will not hold Station 4: Can I change the locks when I rent? 4 Station 5: Someone may be in the house: what do the police say to do? 5 Station 6: Deadlocks at night: how do you get out if there is a fire? 6 Station 7: After a break-in: what happens tonight, tomorrow and in the weeks after? 7 The plan as a strip: the wall across the phone, station 3 lit OUTSIDE INSIDE Station 1: Someone may be in the house: what do the police say to do? 1 Station 2: Locked out, or the keys are gone: who might hold a spare, and what about the old ones? 2 Station 3, this guide: Is a broken lock in a rental an urgent repair? 3 A lock that will not hold Station 4: Can I change the locks when I rent? 4 Station 5: Someone may be in the house: what do the police say to do? 5 Station 6: Deadlocks at night: how do you get out if there is a fire? 6 Station 7: After a break-in: what happens tonight, tomorrow and in the weeks after? 7

What counts as a repair that cannot wait

Two states use the word: NSW has urgent repairs, Queensland has emergency repairs, and both of them catch a lock that will not hold on the same line, a fault or damage that leaves the home unsafe or insecure. Victoria sets the door as a minimum standard. Western Australia holds the landlord to a minimum level of security instead of naming a repair.

  • New South Wales

    A fault or damage which makes the property unsafe or insecure is an urgent repair under the state's tenancy laws. The law splits repairs into the urgent and the rest, and a lock that will not hold puts the door on the urgent side of that line.

  • Queensland

    The same case is an emergency repair: a fault or damage that makes the premises unsafe or insecure, a line the Act's list applies to smoke alarms as well. Repairs needed to bring the property up to the minimum housing standards are emergency repairs too, and those standards require functioning locks or latches on external doors and on windows that can be reached without a ladder.

  • Victoria

    Victoria's page sets the door itself as a minimum standard rather than using the word urgent: an external door has to have a working deadlatch with at least one cylinder, and openable windows need a working lock or a latch. These are part of the rental minimum standards, and the page says a lock that always needs a key to open from the inside is not recommended.

  • Western Australia

    The landlord answers for the home having at least the minimum level of security. Where a home is exempt from the minimum standard, such as an agricultural, rural or heritage-listed home, it still has to have locks or other devices in place and kept up, so the home stays reasonably secure.

One page per state: NSW Fair Trading, Urgent repairs in residential rental properties and Window, deck and balcony safety in a rental property, the Residential Tenancies Authority, Emergency repairs and Locks and security, Consumer Affairs Victoria, Locks and security, and Consumer Protection WA, Rental home security.

Queensland's list, in full

Queensland is the state that publishes the list itself. Under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, emergency repairs are:

  • a burst water service or a serious water service leak.
  • a blocked or broken toilet.
  • a serious roof leak.
  • a gas leak.
  • a dangerous electrical fault.
  • flooding or serious flood damage.
  • serious storm, fire or impact damage.
  • a failure or breakdown of the gas, electricity or water supply.
  • a failure or breakdown of an essential service or appliance on the premises for hot water, cooking or heating.
  • a fault or damage that makes the premises unsafe or insecure, which the page notes includes smoke alarms.
  • a fault or damage likely to injure a person, damage property or unduly inconvenience a tenant.
  • a serious fault in a staircase, lift or other common area of the premises that unduly inconveniences a tenant in gaining access to, or using, the premises.

Anything not on that list is a routine repair, and the emergency rules do not apply to rooming accommodation at all, where every repair counts as routine.

A lock is not named anywhere on that list. The line that catches one is the tenth: a fault or damage that makes the premises unsafe or insecure. Read with the minimum housing standards, which require working locks or latches on the doors and reachable windows, it is what puts a broken lock into the emergency column in Queensland.

Whom to tell first

NSW Fair Trading is direct about the first step: a tenant with an urgent repair has to tell the landlord or agent straight away. If the problem is not fixed, the tenant looks to the tenancy agreement for the repairers it names, and the page gives the Fair Trading call centre on 13 32 20.

Queensland puts the contact in the agreement. The tenancy agreement must carry the name and phone number of the nominated repairer, and it must say whether that repairer or the property manager is the first point of contact. A tenant who needs an emergency repair makes every effort to contact that person as soon as they become aware of the problem, and a phone call is enough: the regulation does not require the notice in writing, though the page calls a written follow-up good practice.

From NSW Fair Trading, Urgent repairs in residential rental properties, and the Residential Tenancies Authority, Emergency repairs.

Who may arrange the repair, and the cap

Queensland is the state whose page sets the money out in full, and the cap is four weeks' rent.

  1. Within a reasonable time

    If the emergency contact cannot be reached, either the tenant or the property manager can arrange repairs up to a maximum value of 4 weeks rent.

  2. If the manager pays

    The property manager may take the cost of up to 4 weeks' rent out of the rent collected, before passing the rest to the owner.

  3. If the tenant pays

    The tenant asks for reimbursement in writing, gives every receipt to the owner or manager, and allows a minimum of 7 days for the money.

  4. After that deadline

    The tenant can apply to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal for an urgent decision, without going through the authority's dispute process first.

  5. If nobody can be reached at all

    A tenant who cannot reach the repairer or the manager, and cannot organise a suitably qualified person, may ask the Tribunal for a repair order; so may a tenant whose emergency repair was not done within a reasonable time after it was reported.

  6. NSW, the same stage

    NSW Fair Trading points the tenant to the repairers named in the tenancy agreement, and to its call centre on 13 32 20.

Queensland's four weeks' rent is the only figure the pages linked here set for a repair a renter arranges. For Victoria and Western Australia those pages hold the landlord to the standard, and leave the money to another page or another law.

From the Residential Tenancies Authority, Emergency repairs, and NSW Fair Trading, Urgent repairs in residential rental properties.

Related guides

If you want to change the lock rather than repair it, station 4 covers consent, cost and the new key. If the lock failed after a break-in, station 7 covers the first days.