In NSW, a rental bond is money a tenant pays to a landlord or agent and is held by NSW Fair Trading as security. Both tenants and landlords or agents can manage or claim their bonds using Rental Bonds Online.

It is a fast and convenient way to:

Self-managing landlords must be registered with Rental Bonds Online and offer the service to new tenants as the first option for payment of their bond.

Register Your Property and Create an Account:

First, you'll need to register your property and verify to create your account with Rental Bonds online.

OR Email rboregistration@customerservice.nsw.gov.au your completed form with a certified copy of the required proof of identity documents (as outlined in the form), endorsed as a true copy by a Justice of the Peace.

You can find a JP in your area here.

Once NSW Fair Trading has verified your proof of identification documents with your completed form, you will receive emails with your new Landlord Code and instructions to activate your RBO account.

Already Registered?

You will skip straight to entering the tenancy details and inviting your tenants to pay the bond directly to NSW Fair Trading.

Here are the steps you need to know before lodging a bond with your tenant. Rental Bonds Online will direct you to a website where you can access bond lodgement in NSW.

👉 On RentBetter, we recommend that you use the Rental Bonds Online Service to complete the payment of the bond.

To do this, please choose ‘NSW Fair Trading through Rental Bonds Online’ as the option for where the tenant is providing the bond during the tenancy setup steps:

Once the tenants have made the payment through Rental Bonds Online, you will receive a notification directly from Rental Bonds Online that the bond has been paid.

Then you can proceed to mark the bond as paid inside your RentBetter account and upload any receipts via the bond section for record.

To support your tenant with Rental Bonds Online, you can direct them to the Rental Bonds Online – for tenants page

There is no legal requirement to take a bond but it is typically recommended to do so to protect your property in the event of damage or unpaid rent or bills.

You must lodge the bond with the bond authority in NSW, and it is an offence not to do so.

In NSW, bond payments must be lodged with Rental Bonds Online within 10 working days of being received. It’s a legal requirement that the bond is not held in your account and must be formally lodged through Fair Trading.

In NSW, the maximum bond that can be collected from your tenant is 4 weeks' rent.

Unfortunately, we're not able to lodge the bond on your behalf. You should complete the lodgement through the RBO and have the tenant make the payment through their portal. Then, once the bond is paid, you can mark it as paid inside RentBetter via the Bond section.

Collecting the bond payment through Rental Bonds Online is the recommended method in NSW. However, if you’ve chosen to collect the bond through RentBetter instead, you’ll need to complete the lodgement manually using a paper form.

This process will require visiting a Service NSW Centre in person. You can find more information about how to lodge a bond using the paper form here - https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/lodge-a-residential-rental-bond-landlords-and-agents

In NSW, the bond is not permitted to be increased where the tenant continues to occupy the residential premises under one or more successive residential tenancy agreements.

For additional help, you can contact Rental Bonds Online Security and Support directly by emailing rbosupport@customerservice.nsw.gov.au or call 1800 990 724.

Information sourced directly from https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/