What Records Should a Landlord Keep?
Nobody becomes a landlord because they enjoy paperwork. But the records are the part that decides whether tax time takes an afternoon or a fortnight, whether a bond dispute goes your way, and whether an insurance claim gets paid. Here is what to keep, why each item matters, and how to keep it without a shoebox.
Income: every payment, not just the total
Record rent as it is received, payment by payment, rather than reconstructing a yearly figure later. You want the date, the amount, the property and the tenant. The same goes for anything else the property earns — a bond forfeited, an insurance payout, a charge for damage. If a property manager handles the tenancy, keep their statements too: the rent they collect and the fees they deduct are both part of your picture, and only the statement shows the gross figure.
Expenses: the receipt is the record
An expense you cannot evidence is an expense you may not be able to claim. Keep the receipt or invoice for everything, and note what it was for while you still remember. The usual categories:
- Mortgage interest — from the annual statement, not your repayment amount (only part of a repayment is interest).
- Rates, levies and body corporate fees.
- Insurance — landlord, building and contents.
- Repairs and maintenance — with a note of what was fixed. The line between a repair and an improvement matters, and it is far easier to judge from a description than from “plumber, $480”.
- Property management fees, letting fees and advertising.
- Accounting and legal fees relating to the rental.
- Travel to inspect or maintain the property, if your rules allow it.
Assets, separately from expenses
A new oven or a heat pump is usually not a simple expense — it is an asset that depreciates over years. Keep the purchase date, the price and the invoice, because you will still be referring to that record long after the paperwork would otherwise have been thrown out. This is the single record landlords most often wish they had kept properly.
The tenancy paperwork
- The signed tenancy agreement, and any renewals or variations.
- Bond lodgement confirmation.
- The entry condition report, with photos — the thing that settles an end-of-tenancy dispute.
- Routine inspection reports, in date order.
- Rent reviews and the notices you gave.
- Written correspondence with tenants, particularly anything about damage, repairs or arrears.
Compliance certificates and their expiry dates
Smoke alarms, electrical or gas safety, insulation, healthy-homes style requirements — whatever applies where you are. Keep the certificate and diarise the expiry. A lapsed certificate is the sort of thing nobody notices until it is a problem, and it is trivially avoidable with a reminder.
How long to keep it all
Longer than you would think. Seven years is a common requirement for tax records, but it varies by country, and asset and depreciation records often need to outlive that because they are still in use. Check your own tax authority’s rule rather than guessing — and when in doubt, keep it, because digital records cost nothing to store.
Make the record while it is still true
Every landlord who has done a panicked reconstruction in July knows the lesson: the record you make at the time is accurate, and the one you rebuild from a bank statement nine months later is a guess. The habit that works is logging the expense when you pay it, photographing the receipt before it goes in a pocket, and writing one line about what the job actually was.
Keep it in one place, on your own device
That is what LandlordMate is built for — a free Android app that holds the whole rental business in one place: properties, tenants and mortgages; income and expenses with proper GST, VAT or sales-tax handling and jurisdiction-aware settings; an asset register with depreciation schedules; room-by-room inspections exported as a PDF report; maintenance jobs and a contractor directory; and compliance documents with expiry reminders so nothing lapses. Snap a receipt and on-device scanning reads the details. At year end it produces a tax summary and loss carry-forward you can export to CSV or PDF. It is offline-first with no account and no subscription, so your records stay on your device.
More on the app: the LandlordMate page. This article is general information about record keeping, not tax, legal or financial advice — check the rules that apply to you.
Frequently asked questions
What records do landlords need to keep?
Rental income payment by payment, every expense with its receipt, mortgage interest statements, asset purchases for depreciation, the tenancy agreement and bond, condition and inspection reports, and compliance certificates with their expiry dates.
How long should I keep rental property records?
Commonly seven years for tax records, though it varies by country, and depreciation records often need to be kept for as long as you hold the asset. Check your own tax authority.
Do I need receipts for everything?
Effectively yes — an expense you cannot evidence is one you may not be able to claim. Photograph receipts as you go rather than hoping to find them later.
What is the difference between a repair and an improvement?
Broadly, a repair restores something to its previous condition and an improvement makes it better than it was — and they are usually treated differently. Record what was actually done so the judgement can be made later.
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