What Records Should Australian Landlords Keep?

Ask a self-managing landlord what records they keep and the honest answer is usually "most of them, somewhere". Receipts in email, the lease in a drawer, rent in a spreadsheet, photos on a phone. Everything exists; nothing is findable.

Good record keeping is not about keeping more. It is about knowing the categories, keeping something in each one, and keeping it somewhere you can actually retrieve it. Here are the eight categories that matter.

1. Lease and tenancy documents

The signed tenancy agreement is the foundation of everything else, so keep the executed copy, not a draft. Alongside it, keep any variations, renewals, amendments, and the records of who signed and when. If co-tenants or a guarantor are part of the tenancy, their details and signatures belong here too.

2. Rent records

A complete rent ledger: what was due, what was received, when, and by what method, with a running balance. This is the single most requested document in arrears disputes and tribunal matters. If you keep only one category well, make it this one.

3. Bond records

Record the bond amount, when it was received, and the lodgement details with your state or territory bond authority, including the lodgement number. When the tenancy ends, the bond conversation goes far more smoothly when the paper trail is complete from day one.

4. Expenses and receipts

Every property-related expense, with its receipt, categorised as you go. Rates, insurance, repairs, agent-free advertising, the lot. The habit that matters is capturing the receipt at the time of the expense rather than reconstructing a year of spending the following July.

5. Condition and inspection reports

The move-in condition report, signed by every party, is your baseline for the entire tenancy. Keep routine inspection records with photos as the tenancy runs, and a move-out report at the end. When there is a disagreement about damage, these reports and their photos are the evidence.

6. Maintenance and repairs

Keep the request, the dates, what was done, who did it, and what it cost. A full maintenance history per property shows a pattern of a landlord meeting their obligations, and it is also simply useful: when the hot water system fails, you want to know when it was last touched and by whom.

7. Insurance and compliance

Your landlord insurance policy and its renewal dates, plus the compliance records your state or territory requires, such as smoke alarm servicing. These are the documents nobody thinks about until the day they are urgently needed.

8. Tax and EOFY records

Income and expense summaries by financial year, depreciation schedules if you have them, and the records behind every figure in your tax return. If the numbers above are kept as you go, this category largely assembles itself at year end.

How long to keep records

For tax records, the ATO's general rule is five years from lodgement of the relevant return. Do not treat the end of a tenancy as permission to clear the files; the tax clock runs from lodgement, not from the day the tenant moves out.

Capital gains records are the long game: keep records relevant to the property's cost base for the whole ownership period, plus five years after sale. Purchase documents, capital improvement receipts, and sale records all belong in this pile, however long you hold the property.

Tenancy-specific documents have their own practical retention logic: keep anything that could matter to a dispute at least until any dispute window has clearly passed, and longer costs you nothing if storage is digital.

Where to keep them

One organised place beats perfect intentions. A single folder structure you actually maintain, digital by preference so it is searchable and backed up, will outperform an elaborate system you abandon by March. Whatever the system, the test is retrieval: can you produce the signed lease, the current ledger, and last year's expense summary in under five minutes?

PropPilot keeps these records organised as a by-product of using it: rent builds its own ledger, expenses are logged by category per property, documents and condition reports live with the tenancy they belong to, and financial year summaries are ready for your accountant. You can start free with one property, no credit card required.

Start with the gaps

You almost certainly keep some of these eight categories well already. The value is in the gaps, and most landlords have the same two: condition reports with photos, and expenses captured at the time rather than reconstructed later. Fix those two and the rest is maintenance.