Paying your rental bond

In this guide, we explain rental bonds.

A rental bond is money you pay when you move into a home you don’t own.

We also explain how rental bonds work for social housing.

Social housing is homes that cost less to live in.

The government helps pay for social housing.

A rental bond aims to protect the person who owns your social housing from losing money.

For example, if you cause any damage to your social housing a rental bond will help pay to fix this.

You will also need to pay a rental bond if you have caused damage to social housing before.

You will need to pay a rental bond if:

• this damage happened in the last 6 years
• the damage will cost more than $500 to fix
• you plan to live in social housing again.

A rental bond is not for damage caused by your social housing getting old.

For example, if paint on the wall has faded or the door hinges are loose.

A rental bond can encourage people to take good care of the social housing they live in.

If you take good care of your social housing, you will get your rental bond back when you leave.

Some people don’t have to pay a rental bond to live in social housing.

For example, you don’t have to pay a rental bond if:

• you are over 80 years old

• you worked in the defence force, like the army

• we decide that you should not have to.

You can find a full list of people who don’t have to pay a rental bond on the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) website.

You might not get your rental bond back if you cause damage to your social housing.

If the damage will cost more than $500 to fix, DCJ will use your rental bond to pay for it.

If the damage will cost less than $500 to fix, you can pay for it with your own money.

You need to tell DCJ about any damage in your social housing straight away so they can fix it.

DCJ will ask you how the damage happened. And they will treat everyone fairly.

For example, they won’t use your rental bond if the damage happened when you tried to leave domestic and family violence.

Domestic and family violence is when someone close to you hurts you, such as:

• your partner, like your boyfriend or girlfriend
• a member of your family
• someone who takes care of you
• someone you live with.

You can find out more in the Tenant Repair Costs Policy page on the DCJ website.

You can contact DCJ for more information.

You can call them.

1800 422 322

You can find a social housing office near you in the

Find a housing office page on the DCJ website.

The NSW Domestic Violence Line supports women who experience domestic and family violence.

You can call them.

1800 656 463

Link2Home Homelessness supports people who are homeless.

You can call them.

1800 152 152

Link2Home Veterans and Ex-Service supports people who are homeless and worked in the defence force.

You can call them.

1800 326 989

The Child Protection Helpline supports people to make sure children are safe.

You can call them.

13 21 11