Renting, and it is 9pm: you may be able to arrange this yourself

Roughly two in three households around here rent, and almost everyone lives in a flat. At the 2021 Census, 62.8 per cent of Bondi Beach households were renting, against 46.8 per cent across the Waverley area, and only 30 per cent were buying or owned outright.

So the most common plumbing situation in this suburb is a tenant with a problem at an hour when nobody is answering. The default assumption is that nothing can happen until an agent replies in the morning. For urgent repairs, that assumption is often wrong, and the reason it is wrong is written into NSW law.

The short answer

Under section 64 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (NSW), where urgent repairs are needed a tenant may arrange them and be reimbursed by the landlord, up to $1,000, and the landlord must reimburse within 14 days of being given written notice. There are conditions, and the one that catches people is the last: the repairs must be carried out by a licensed or properly qualified person.

1. Notify the landlord or agent, or make a reasonable attempt to
2. Give them a reasonable opportunity to arrange it themselves
3. Use the tradesperson named in your tenancy agreement, if there is one
4. Make sure whoever attends is licensed, or reimbursement does not apply
5. Give written notice afterwards, and keep everything

On this page

1. What the law says
2. What counts as urgent
3. The licence condition
4. What to do tonight
5. The paperwork
6. Where to check

1. What section 64 actually says

Section 64 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 covers urgent repairs. Where they are needed, a tenant may arrange them and be reimbursed by the landlord, up to $1,000, and the landlord must reimburse within 14 days of being given written notice.

Reimbursement applies only where all of the following hold:

• The disrepair did not result from the tenant breaching the agreement.
• The tenant gave the landlord or agent notice, or made a reasonable attempt to.
• The tenant gave a reasonable opportunity for the landlord to make the repairs.
• The tenant attempted to arrange the tradesperson nominated in the tenancy agreement, if there is one.
• The repairs were carried out by a licensed or properly qualified person.

That last condition is the one this guide exists for, and it is dealt with properly further down.

2. What counts as an urgent repair

The Act lists urgent repairs, and several of them are plumbing.

• A burst water service.
• A gas leak.
• A blocked or broken toilet. Worth knowing, because plenty of tenants assume a toilet is an inconvenience rather than an urgent repair.
• Serious water damage.
• Failure of an essential service, such as hot water.

A blocked or broken toilet being expressly urgent is the item that surprises people most, particularly in a flat where it is the only one. Hot water failing is the second.

What is not on that list is ordinary maintenance, and the distinction matters. A dripping tap is a repair the landlord should attend to in the normal course; it is not a section 64 situation.

3. The condition that decides whether you get your money back

On most plumbing sites a licence number is a trust signal: proof the business is legitimate. Here it is doing something more concrete than that.

The reimbursement provisions require that the repairs were carried out by a licensed or properly qualified person. A tenant who arranges an urgent repair and uses somebody unlicensed has not just taken a risk with the work. They have used a tradesperson who does not satisfy the condition, and the reimbursement pathway that made the whole thing viable does not apply.

So the licence number is not reassurance here, it is the mechanism by which a tenant actually gets their money back. Ours is NSW Plumbing Licence 368473C, it is on every quote and invoice we issue, and it is checkable on the Fair Trading public register in about a minute. Check anybody's before they start.

4. What to actually do, in order

1. Make it safe if you can. Isolate the fixture, or the water, or leave and ventilate if it is gas. Nothing else on this list matters as much.
2. Contact the landlord or agent. Ring and message. A message creates a record of the attempt, which is one of the conditions.
3. Give them a reasonable opportunity. What is reasonable depends on the hour and the severity, and it is worth checking with Fair Trading or the Tenants' Union rather than guessing.
4. Check your tenancy agreement for a nominated tradesperson, and try them if there is one.
5. If you arrange it yourself, use somebody licensed, and get the licence number on the paperwork.
6. Give written notice afterwards and keep every message, photograph, quote and invoice.

5. The paperwork that makes a claim straightforward

This is where a plumber can genuinely help beyond doing the work, and it costs nothing extra to ask for it at the time.

• An itemised invoice rather than a single line, showing what was done and what each part cost.
• The licence number and ABN on it, because that is the condition.
• A written description of the fault, not just the repair. What was wrong matters as much as what was done.
• Photographs of what was found, which we will take if asked at the start of the visit.
• The date and time of attendance, which matters when the point is that it was urgent.

A tenant with those five things is in a completely different position from one with a handwritten receipt, and the difference costs nothing at the time and is unrecoverable afterwards.

6. Where to check your own situation

Everything above is a general description of the provisions. Whether they apply to your particular circumstances is a question for people who do tenancy law, and it is worth asking them rather than us.

• NSW Fair Trading for the official position on repairs and tenancy obligations.
• The Tenants' Union of NSW for plain-language factsheets on urgent repairs and reimbursement.
• Your tenancy agreement for any nominated tradesperson.

What we would say is that knowing section 64 exists is the useful part. A large share of renters here have simply never been told that they can act at all, and the assumption that nothing can happen until an agent replies is the thing that turns a two-hour problem into a three-day one.

The short version

• Around two thirds of households here rent, and almost everyone lives in a flat.
• Section 64 lets a tenant arrange urgent repairs and be reimbursed, up to $1,000.
• The landlord must reimburse within 14 days of written notice, subject to five conditions.
• Urgent includes a burst water service, a gas leak, a blocked or broken toilet, and no hot water.
• The last condition is that the tradesperson is licensed. Unlicensed means no reimbursement.
• NSW Fair Trading and the Tenants' Union are the authorities. Check your own situation there.