RTA's 2026-27 compliance plan begins with bond claim evidence

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The Residential Tenancies Authority announced on 10 August 2026 that the first focus of its compliance and enforcement action plan for 2026-27 is evidence for bond claims. Between July and September, the RTA says it will proactively investigate cases where a property manager or owner did not give a tenant supporting evidence for a bond claim within the time the law allows.

The plan sets one priority for each quarter of the financial year. According to the RTA, it targets conduct that poses the greatest risk of harm to the community, and it applies enforcement that is proportionate to the severity of the breach, the public interest and the effect on the community.

The rule being checked

Since 30 September 2024, Queensland's rental laws have required a property manager or owner who claims against a bond, or who disputes a tenant's refund request, to give the tenant evidence supporting the claim. The RTA states that the evidence must be supplied within 14 days of lodging the claim or dispute and that the maximum penalty for not doing so is 20 penalty units.

The requirement applies to residents of rooming accommodation as well as to tenants under general tenancy agreements. It began on the same date as another change, listed on the RTA's rental law changes page: the bond for a new tenancy can be no more than four weeks' rent.

The announcement itself does not list what counts as evidence. An RTA podcast on the subject, published in January 2025, says the legislation gives no specific definition of supporting evidence but offers examples that go to the amount claimed: receipts, quotes for repairs to damage, and records of unpaid rent. In practice a claim also tends to rest on documents made during the tenancy, such as the entry and exit condition reports and photographs, and the rule is about handing the relevant ones over on time.

The same podcast makes two points about the clock. The 14 days start when the managing party claims the bond or disputes a refund request, not when the tenant first asks for the money back. And the deadline is separate from another 14-day period in the refund process, the time a party has to respond to a notice of claim, which is described below.

Where the evidence rule sits in a bond refund

Most bonds never reach this point. The RTA's guidance on refunds asks the parties to discuss and agree how the bond will be paid out before anyone lodges a request. When everyone agrees, one party lodges the request, the others approve it, and the authority says it aims to process the refund the day it is received, with up to three business days for the money to reach a bank account.

A refund becomes disputed when the parties have not all agreed to the same split. In that case, according to the RTA, any amount that is not in dispute is released, the rest is held, and a notice of claim goes to the party who has not agreed. That party has 14 days to lodge a dispute resolution request. If the RTA hears nothing, the bond is paid out as first requested, two to three business days after the notice expires. If the claim is disputed, the refund is put on hold and the matter goes to the authority's conciliation service.

The evidence rule runs alongside those steps. A manager or owner who lodges a claim on the bond, or who disputes the tenant's request, has to put the supporting documents in the tenant's hands within 14 days of doing so. A tenant who has not received them by then can ask the RTA to investigate.

If the two sides disagree about the evidence

The authority draws a clear line between its enforcement role and the argument over a particular bond. An investigation looks at whether the deadline was met. A disagreement over whether a photograph or an invoice supports a deduction follows a separate path, which the RTA sets out in three stages.

The distinction matters for what an investigation can deliver. The RTA's overview of its compliance work says investigations are focused on upholding compliance and do not recover money or provide compensation. A tenant who believes a deduction is wrong still needs the dispute path to get the bond back. An investigation into the missing evidence is a separate matter between the regulator and the person who made the claim.

For property managers, the practical point is timing. A claim lodged without the supporting documents ready leaves 14 days to produce them, and during this quarter the RTA has said it will look for cases where that did not happen. For tenants, the rule means a claim against their bond should arrive with something to read, not a figure alone.

How an RTA investigation runs

The authority can investigate only breaches that are offences, meaning those that carry penalty units under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008. In an explainer published in September 2025 it put the number of offences in the Act at more than 150. Disputes about maintenance, about a bond refund or about a manager's or owner's behaviour are outside that power and go to dispute resolution.

The RTA describes five stages. An investigator assesses the request and decides which allegations can be investigated. The other party is then told of the allegations in writing, with the relevant sections of the Act, and is given the chance to respond with evidence. The investigator weighs the material and decides whether a breach occurred and what action is proportionate. All parties are told when the case is closed, and a party who is unhappy with the process can ask for a review.

The plan for 2026-27 names four possible outcomes and when each is used. Education may be provided where there is no history of non-compliance and a genuine attempt to comply has been shown. An official warning may be issued for an isolated incident, or where there is no history or other mitigating circumstances apply. A penalty infringement notice is issued where the law allows it and the non-compliance is repeated or serious. Prosecution is pursued for systemic, serious conduct where litigation is in the public interest.

On timing, the RTA says an investigation can take from a few weeks to several months, and that a matter that goes to prosecution can take more than a year to finish in court. It also notes that it shares responsibility for licensed property managers with the Office of Fair Trading under a memorandum of understanding.

The rest of the year's programme

The plan is a single page. It lists seven priority offences: non-lodgement of bond, rent not offered at a fixed price, rent increases within 12 months, unlawful entry, non-compliance with the tenancy application process, failure to provide or keep receipts, documents or records, and evidence not provided for a bond claim. Four of the seven are given a quarter of proactive work.

Each of the four traces back to law changes of the past three years. The limit on rent increases to once every 12 months began on 1 July 2023 and has applied to the property instead of the tenancy since 6 June 2024, the date on which rent bidding was banned and tenants gained the right to ask for written proof of the last increase. Standardised application forms, Form 22 for general tenancies and Form R22 for rooming accommodation, began on 1 May 2025 together with limits on the personal information that can be requested and a requirement to offer applicants at least two ways to apply.

The remaining three priority offences have no quarter of their own. They stay on the list of matters the authority says it gives priority to when a request for investigation arrives.

What changed from the last plan

The new plan replaces one that ran from 2024 to 2026. That earlier plan was refreshed in June 2025, when the RTA added three offences to reflect rental laws that had just come into force: the tenancy application process, evidence for bond claims, and the keeping of receipts, which it described as a key piece of evidence when making a bond claim. Rent increases within 12 months, unlawful entry, rent not offered at a fixed amount and non-lodgement of bond were already on it.

The priorities are therefore largely carried over. What is new is the calendar: a named quarter in which the authority goes looking for one type of breach instead of waiting for a complaint. The RTA says the priorities were drawn from regulatory intelligence and sector insights. The plan gives no figures for how many proactive investigations it expects to open, and the announcement does not say how cases will be selected.

One change of September 2024 makes this kind of work easier to run. The RTA's summary of the law changes records that the authority gained the ability to share information with other government agencies and departments to support compliance and enforcement, and that giving the RTA false or misleading information became an offence for anyone involved in a tenancy.

The plan is the regulator's, and it concerns offences under an Act that already applies. It does not change any rule. What changes is where the authority says it will look first, and for the three months to the end of September that is the paperwork behind a bond claim. The next quarter's subject, the handling of rental applications, begins on 1 October.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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