Broken glass in a Tasmanian rental: who pays and how fast
The owner pays for glass that fails through age, weather, a break-in or a fault in the property. The tenant pays for glass that they, their family or their visitors broke, because that is damage beyond fair wear and tear. Under the Residential Tenancy Act 1997 a smashed or missing pane that leaves a property insecure or open to the weather is an urgent repair, and urgent repairs have to be arranged straight away rather than rolled into the next maintenance run. In Hobart a board-up is $150 to $350 and a standard reglaze $180 to $450, so most rental glass jobs are finished for under $800.
Every glass situation in a rental, and who wears it
This is the table we get asked for by owners and property managers most weeks. It sets out the situation, who is normally responsible, the timeframe the Tasmanian rules point to, and the 2026 Hobart cost. It is general information rather than legal advice, and a tenancy agreement or a Residential Tenancy Commissioner decision can change the answer in a particular case.
| Situation | Who is responsible | Timeframe | Typical 2026 cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Break-in, window forced or smashed | Owner Usually an insurable event. Tenant reports it to police. | Urgent Make safe immediately, glass to follow | $150 to $350 make-safe, then $180 to $450 to reglaze |
| Storm or a branch through a window | Owner | Urgent | $150 to $350 per opening, plus glass and any frame repair |
| Tenant, their child or their visitor breaks a pane | Tenant Damage beyond fair wear and tear | Owner should still arrange it promptly and recover the cost | $180 to $450 clear, $350 to $750 toughened |
| Pane loose or fallen out of a rotted sash with perished putty | Owner Maintenance, not tenant damage | Urgent if the opening is now unsecured, otherwise a reasonable time | $220 to $480 per pane to reglaze and reputty |
| Cracked pane found at a routine inspection, cause unknown | Owner unless the condition report or a tenant report says otherwise | Non-urgent, program it | $180 to $450 |
| Double glazed unit fogged between the panes | Owner Wear and tear on the edge seal | Non-urgent | $450 to $900 per unit |
| Plain annealed glass found in a door, side panel or bathroom | Owner | Non-urgent, but upgrade whenever that pane is next replaced | $350 to $750 for a Grade A toughened pane |
| Shower screen door dropped or hinge failed | Owner unless it is clearly misuse | Urgent if the glass is unsupported | $150 to $350 for hinges or pivots, $700 to $1,400 for a new framed screen |
| Window will not lock, glass intact | Owner Security is an owner obligation | Urgent A rental has to be securable | $150 to $400 for hardware, more if the sash has dropped |
| Board still over an opening weeks after the break | Owner | Urgent Weatherproofing, light and ventilation are minimum standards | $180 to $450 to finish the job properly |
| Mirror, splashback or shower glass broken by the tenant | Tenant | Non-urgent unless glass is loose or missing | $120 to $700 mirrors, $600 to $1,300 splashbacks |
| Damage found at the vacate inspection and not on the entry report | Tenant via a bond claim, if you can evidence it | Within the bond claim process | $180 to $450, and you need an itemised invoice |
Indicative Hobart 2026 supplied-and-fitted prices. See the full pricing guide and the cost breakdown.
The Tasmanian rules, in plain words
Residential tenancies in Tasmania run under the Residential Tenancy Act 1997, which is administered by Consumer, Building and Occupational Services within the Department of Justice. Disputes are decided by the Residential Tenancy Commissioner, and bonds are held by the Rental Deposit Authority rather than by the agent. Those three names are worth knowing, because they are who a tenant will contact when a repair drags.
Urgent repairs
The Act separates urgent repairs from general repairs. Urgent covers the faults that make a home unsafe, insecure or unusable, along with serious storm and fire damage and the failure of essential services. A smashed ground floor window sits squarely in that category, because the property is no longer secure or weatherproof. Urgent means arrange it now, not at the next inspection. The Act also allows a tenant who has genuinely tried and failed to contact the owner or the agent to arrange an urgent repair with a suitably qualified person and recover the reasonable cost, up to a prescribed limit. Check the current limit with Consumer, Building and Occupational Services before you rely on it, because it is set by regulation and it changes.
General repairs
Tasmania does not attach a single number of days to general repairs the way some other states do. The test is a reasonable time, and reasonable is measured against how much the fault affects the tenant, not against how busy the owner is. A fogged double glazed unit in a spare bedroom is genuinely not urgent. A cracked pane in a child’s bedroom with a westerly forecast is a different conversation, even though neither is technically an emergency.
Minimum standards
Tasmanian rental properties have to meet minimum standards, which include being weatherproof and structurally sound and having adequate ventilation. A sheet of ply screwed over a window is a legitimate make-safe for a few days. It is very hard to argue it still meets those standards a month later, and that is the point at which a tenant has a real complaint rather than a grumble.
Notice and access
Give at least 24 hours notice before entering to carry out repairs, at a reasonable hour, and tell the tenant who is coming and roughly when. In a genuine emergency, entry can happen without notice, which is what allows a make-safe at 9pm. The practical tip is worth more than the legal one: give the tenant a 2 hour window and a name, and get their mobile number to the glazier. Two failed access attempts on a $250 job will cost more than the glass did.
Fair wear and tear, or tenant damage?
This is where most bond arguments about glass start, and it is simpler than people make it. Fair wear and tear is what happens to a property when someone lives in it normally. Glass does not wear out from being looked through. Putty perishes, timber sashes rot, aluminium frames corrode near the water at Bellerive and Kingston, and double glazed edge seals fail after 15 to 25 years. All of that is the owner’s.
Breakage is different. Glass breaks because something hit it, something moved it, or something was slammed. That is an event, not wear, and it belongs to whoever caused it. The exception every property manager should know is thermal stress cracking: a pane can crack on its own when part of it is heated hard and the edges stay cold, which in Hobart happens most often behind a heater, behind a heavy curtain, or where a sticker or a piece of foil has been stuck on the glass. A clean crack running from an edge with no impact point is very often thermal, and charging a tenant for it will not survive scrutiny.
Evidence decides it either way. An entry condition report with clear photographs of every window, a routine inspection record and an exit report with the same photographs is the difference between a straightforward bond claim and an argument you lose. Photograph glass at entry even when it is perfect, because the photo you did not take is the pane you will be arguing about.
Managing a portfolio in Hobart?
Send the work order with photos and the tenant contact. We book access directly with the tenant, send one itemised invoice per property and photograph before and after.
For property managers: what makes a glass job run cleanly
Managers are half of who reads this page, and the difference between a smooth glass job and a painful one is almost always the work order rather than the glass.
- Photos with the work order. Inside, outside, and a close-up of one broken edge. That alone usually gets an indicative price back the same day rather than after a measure.
- A rough size. Even a tenant holding a tape measure to the glass helps. It tells us whether the pane is a stock float size or a made to order toughened unit, and that is the difference between next day and 3 to 10 business days.
- The tenant’s mobile number and permission to contact them. Access is the biggest cost driver on rental glass work in Hobart, not glass.
- A work order limit you are comfortable with. Most single pane jobs land under $500, so a limit around that figure lets the job proceed without a second approval loop.
- Tell us if a claim is running. If it is, we write the quote the way an assessor wants it. The Tasmanian glass insurance guide covers what that looks like.
- Flag heritage. Battery Point, West Hobart and parts of New Town have timber sash windows where a modern silicone reglaze is the wrong answer. See heritage sash reglazing.
Repair or capital improvement: the tax line
This matters more than the glass bill, because it changes whether you deduct the whole amount this year or 2.5 percent of it for the next forty. The general position the Australian Taxation Office takes is straightforward.
- A repair restores something to the condition it was in without changing its character. Replacing one broken pane with the same glass while the property is earning rent is a repair, and a $180 to $450 reglaze is usually deductible in that year.
- An initial repair is damage that already existed when you bought the property, even if you fix it a year later. That is capital, not an immediate deduction, and it is a common trap on a house bought with a cracked window nobody mentioned.
- An improvement makes the thing better than it was. Replacing single glazing with a double glazed unit at $700 to $1,600 per window is an improvement. So is replacing a whole window rather than the glass in it, and so is a first time shower screen where there was only a curtain.
- A depreciating asset is a separate category again. A whole new shower screen or a new window unit generally falls here rather than being an immediate deduction.
Keep the itemised invoice, because the description on it is what an accountant works from. An invoice that says reglaze one broken pane, 4mm clear float, lounge window reads as a repair. An invoice that says supply and install new window does not, even if the work was identical. This is general information, not tax advice, and your accountant decides your situation.
The honest bit: three jobs we tell owners not to do
We would rather quote you once and be trusted than sell you three jobs you did not need.
Do not retrofit double glazing purely to lift the rent. At $700 to $1,600 per window a modest Hobart house is a $9,000 to $22,000 project, and no Tasmanian rental market pays that back in rent inside a reasonable horizon. Do it if you intend to hold the property for a long time, or if condensation and mould are causing genuine disputes, and read single versus double glazing before you commit. Do not do it because someone told you it is a rental upgrade.
Do not replace a whole shower screen when the hardware failed. A dropped door is very often $150 to $350 in hinges, pivots, rollers or a new bottom seal, against $700 to $1,400 for a replacement screen. Ask for the hardware to be priced first. Our shower screen page covers what is repairable.
Do not chase a fogged unit in an unused room mid-tenancy. It is a $450 to $900 job that changes nothing about habitability. Bundle it with the next real piece of work at that property and save the second call-out.
Price a rental glass repair or a whole work order
Send the property address, photos and a rough size and we come back with an itemised price, usually within one business day, and we arrange access with the tenant ourselves.
Rental glass questions from Tasmanian owners and agents
Who pays when a tenant breaks a window in Tasmania?
Is a broken window an urgent repair in Tasmania?
How much notice does a landlord give before entering for a glass repair?
Can a landlord leave a rental window boarded up?
Is replacing a broken window tax deductible for a landlord?
Can I take the cost of broken glass out of the bond?
More reading: what to do in the first hour · AS 1288 safety glass compliance · the Hobart glass maintenance schedule · glass jobs worth doing before you sell