Your landlord must give you back your bond by 7 business days after your lease ends.
If they want to keep some or all of your bond they must tell you by 7 business days after your lease ends.
If you don't agree about how much bond you should get back, get legal advice from a lawyer.
If you don’t know if you have a bond that you should get back, check this website run by NT Consumer Affairs.
- If your landlord wants to keep some or all of your bond money, they must tell you in a written notice:
- how much bond money they will keep
- the reason why.
- The landlord can only keep your bond if
- You haven’t paid rent
- Parts of the house are damaged
- The house needs to be cleaned
- To pay electricity or gas bills.
- If the landlord is keeping the bond for cleaning, bills or damage they must
- give you receipts for how much it cost.
- give you a statutory declaration that what they say is true.
- If you don’t agree about how much money the landlord can keep, you can:
- talk or write to them.
- talk to a legal service to get help.
- apply to the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal
 Listen |
 Look |
 Read |
 Watch |
Who Can Help? (Service Providers)
 | Read |
| Security Deposits (Bonds)
This factsheet tells you about your bond. |
| Condition Reports
This factsheet tells you about condition reports. |
| Tenancy Disputes in the NTCAT
This factsheet tells you about taking disputes to the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal. |
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Watch |
What’s the law? – Renting
This short video tells you what to do when you first move into a house, and what you can do if your landlord does not want to give your bond money back.
Glossary: What these words mean
| Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) | The Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) is a special kind of court that helps people quickly solve problems that might take a long time in other courts. It tries to be low-cost, easy, quick, and informal; to use plain language; and to help people with special needs. It helps with problems like disputes between tenants and landlords, and other kinds of problems. |
| statutory declaration | A statutory declaration is a form that you use to write down what has happened. You have to sign it in front of someone to say that you believe it’s true. Only people in certain jobs can sign your statutory declaration. |
| bond | Money your landlord asks you to pay when you first move into the house. This is different to rent money. The bond is a type of protection for the landlord. The landlord can use this money to fix anything you break or damage, or if you don’t pay your rent. Your landlord can’t ask you to pay more than four weeks rent for the bond payment. |
| landlord | The person or company who owns the place that you pay rent to live in. |