Girilang What actually has to be in a tenancy agreement
The standard form covers more than most landlords realise, and the clauses people add are often the ones that will not hold.
- NSW
- 7 min read
- Published:
- 20 May 2026
- Last updated:
- 6 October 2026
There is a kind of landlord confidence that ends badly, and it usually starts with “I added a clause”. Residential tenancy agreements in New South Wales use a prescribed standard form. The form already contains the terms the Act requires, and the work is completing it accurately.
The standard form does most of the work
The standard form carries the obligations that matter on both sides: rent, the bond, repairs, access, and how the tenancy ends. Parliament put those terms there, and they cannot be traded away by agreement, whether with a willing tenant, a handshake or an initialled addendum.
What to hand over before anyone signs
- The Tenant information statement published by NSW Fair Trading, which explains the tenant’s rights and obligations in plain terms.
- The material facts the regulation requires you to disclose, such as flooding or bushfire affecting the property in the past five years.
- For a unit in a strata scheme, a copy of the by-laws.
- A copy of the agreement itself, which the tenant keeps.
The details people get wrong
Most of the trouble starts in the boxes at the top of page one.
Tenants
- Get it right
- Every adult who will live there as a tenant, spelled as on their identification
- What goes wrong
- A person not on the agreement is not your tenant
Rent
- Get it right
- An amount, a frequency and how it is paid
- What goes wrong
- Converting weekly to monthly badly creates arrears that never existed
Bond
- Get it right
- The amount, lodged with NSW Fair Trading through Rental Bonds Online within 10 working days of receiving it
- What goes wrong
- A bond kept by you rather than lodged is a breach once those 10 working days pass
Term
- Get it right
- A start date and, for a fixed term, an end date
- What goes wrong
- Nobody is sure what happens when it ends
What is included
- Get it right
- Parking, storage, furniture and appliances
- What goes wrong
- Anything not listed becomes an argument
| Field | Get it right | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Tenants | Every adult who will live there as a tenant, spelled as on their identification | A person not on the agreement is not your tenant |
| Rent | An amount, a frequency and how it is paid | Converting weekly to monthly badly creates arrears that never existed |
| Bond | The amount, lodged with NSW Fair Trading through Rental Bonds Online within 10 working days of receiving it | A bond kept by you rather than lodged is a breach once those 10 working days pass |
| Term | A start date and, for a fixed term, an end date | Nobody is sure what happens when it ends |
| What is included | Parking, storage, furniture and appliances | Anything not listed becomes an argument |
Additional terms that do work
Additional terms are allowed, as long as they do not conflict with the Act. The useful ones are specific, factual and about this property rather than tenants in general.
- That the property is let furnished, with the inventory attached.
- Who looks after the garden, where there is one and a reasonable expectation about it.
- The maximum number of people who may ordinarily live there.
Pets are no longer a matter for an additional term. The standard form now sets out the process: the tenant applies on the Fair Trading form, you respond in writing within 21 days, and you may refuse only on a ground the Act allows. If you do not respond in time, the form treats that as consent.
Signing, and the copy nobody keeps
Sign before the tenancy starts, not three weeks in. Give the tenant their copy and keep proof of when you did. Some disputes reach the tribunal with two parties holding differently annotated versions of one agreement and no way to tell which was signed.
Electronic signing avoids that: one document, signed once by each party, and one copy both of you received. File the signed copy with the rest of the tenancy’s records.
The NSW tenancy agreement, filled in and e-signed
Girilang fills in the NSW standard residential tenancy agreement from your property, room and tenant records. Tenants sign on any phone from a link, and you keep the signed PDF, which shows each party and the time they signed.
