Quick answer
A final kitchen inspection is an evidence exercise, not a tidy-up. Work the same rows the official Tenancy Services property inspection report gives the kitchen — cupboards, sinks and benches, oven, refrigerator, ventilation system, plus walls and doors, lights and power points, floors, windows and curtains — and photograph each item separately against what you recorded at the start. Three of those rows carry nearly every kitchen bond argument: cupboards, sinks and benches, and ventilation. Fair wear and tear is not claimable, and it is for the landlord to prove something is not fair wear and tear. Where a tenant was careless, their liability is capped at four weeks' rent or your insurance excess, whichever is lower, and the Tribunal takes depreciation into account — so a new benchtop is never the claim. Record it with a date, a tight photo and a repair quote, or it is an opinion.
Key points
- The official property inspection report gives a whole kitchen ten rows, and one of them is just "Cupboards" — which is why a photograph per row loses and a photograph per item wins.
- Inspections are capped at once every four weeks, need at least 48 hours' notice and must fall between 8am and 7pm, so a landlord using that regime never meets the kitchen for the first time on move-out day.
- The burden runs your way first: it is for the landlord to prove damage is not fair wear and tear, and only then does the tenant have to show it was careless, or neither careless nor intentional.
- Careless damage by a tenant or their guests is capped at four weeks' rent or the landlord's insurance excess, whichever is lower, and the Tribunal awards compensation with depreciation taken into consideration.
- The ventilation row bites the landlord rather than the tenant, because kitchen extraction is a healthy homes obligation you owe, not a condition you can claim against a bond.
A whole kitchen gets ten rows on the form.
Four o'clock on a Friday, a two-bedroom unit off Great South Road in Papatoetoe, forty minutes before the next viewing. The kitchen looks tired in exactly the way every rental kitchen looks tired: a dark line along the front of the benchtop at the sink, one drawer that needs a shove, a rangehood filter that has not been out of its clips in years. The property manager takes eleven photos from the doorway, ticks "Cupboards — not acceptable", writes "general wear, some damage" in the box, and emails it to the owner. That inspection has already lost. Not because she missed anything — she saw all of it — but because nothing she recorded can be argued about by anyone who wasn't standing there.
This piece is about the assessment, not the work. Whether you strip the room or wipe it down and re-let is a separate decision with its own arithmetic, and getting a rental kitchen turned around between tenancies is its own discipline. What follows is narrower: what to record in a kitchen on the last day, and which of it is actually claimable. The regulatory points come from Tenancy Services and are current as we write. Outcomes turn on facts and evidence in each case, so if there is real money in dispute, get advice rather than trusting a supplier's blog.
The form gives a whole kitchen ten rows
Start with the document you are supposed to be comparing against, because most people have never read it closely. The property inspection report that ships with the standard residential tenancy agreement has one section headed KITCHEN/DINING, and it contains exactly ten rows: Wall/Doors, Lights/Power points, Floors/Fl. Coverings, Windows, Blinds/Curtains, Cupboards, Sinks/Benches, Oven, Refrigerator, Ventilation system. Against each there are two tick boxes — one for the landlord, one for the tenants — under the heading "Condition acceptable?", and one free-text column headed "Damage/Defects". That is the whole official instrument for the most expensive room in the house.
Look at what that does. "Cupboards" is one row. In a standard townhouse galley, that row is covering fourteen doors, eight drawers, four hinges a door, a runner set per drawer, the sink base floor, the dishwasher gable and every metre of edgetape in the room. "Sinks/Benches" is one row for a benchtop, a sink, a mixer, a waste and the cut-out where all four meet. Tick either box and you have recorded a mood, not a condition.
The form is not wrong. Its own preamble says it is intended to help avoid disputes and that the landlord and tenant should fill it out together, ticking the box where the condition is acceptable or recording any damage or defects. It is a minimum, and a minimum is what it is. Everything useful in a kitchen inspection happens in that Damage/Defects column and in the photographs you attach to it, and that part is entirely on you.
The end-of-tenancy look should never be your first look
Here is the thing that decides more bond outcomes than any checklist: the inspection regime you ran during the tenancy. A landlord can inspect a rental at most once every four weeks. Each inspection needs at least 48 hours' notice to the tenant, and it has to happen between 8am and 7pm. Those are the rules, and they are generous. Over a twelve-month tenancy that is thirteen lawful looks at the kitchen.
Most owners take two. Then, on the last day, they meet a kitchen they have not seen in eleven months and try to reconstruct when a swelling started. You can't. There is no evidence of when the sink base got wet, so there is no evidence of who let it get wet, so there is nothing to prove, so the bond goes back in full and the top gets replaced out of your pocket. The four-week cap is the landlord's friend, not the tenant's. It is a ceiling almost nobody gets near.
The notice periods are worth separating, because they are different numbers for different reasons and people mix them up. An inspection needs 48 hours. Entry to carry out necessary repairs or maintenance — a plumber for the weeping tap under the sink — needs at least 24 hours, in the same 8am to 7pm window. Cosmetic work you simply want done needs the tenant to agree a time; notice alone does not get you in. So a mid-tenancy benchtop swap is a negotiation, but a mid-tenancy fix to the leak that will eventually destroy that benchtop is a 24-hour notice. Use the one you are entitled to.
The three rows that decide it
Of the ten rows, three carry nearly every kitchen bond argument. Cupboards first. The genuine disputes there are physical and obvious: a door off its hinges, a drawer front pulled away, a hole punched in a gable. Everything else that row covers is gradual — soft close stopping, runners getting stiff, edgetape lifting at a bottom corner. All of it is the deterioration of things used many times a day, which is the definition of fair wear and tear rather than an exception to it. If that is what you are looking at, the row is your bill.
Sinks/Benches is where the money is and where the argument is hardest. A benchtop swollen at the sink cut-out is not repairable — you cannot sand it, fill it or replace the affected section — so any claim is for a whole top. It is also usually a slow weep rather than an event, which drags it straight back toward fair wear and tear. No dated photograph of that cabinet floor from during the tenancy and you do not have a case. You have a benchtop. Specification is the only real lever here, which is the argument for materials chosen for how they fail rather than how they photograph.
Ventilation system is the third, and it is the odd one out, because a bad result there is your problem regardless of what the tenant did. We will come back to it.
| Row on the form | What to photograph, separately | Usually lands as | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cupboards | Each door face and edge, each drawer open, the sink base floor, the dishwasher gable | Fair wear and tear | Soft close, runners and edgetape are gradual deterioration of things used every day |
| Sinks/Benches | The cut-out edge, the front radius at the sink, the silicone junction, under the mixer | Contested — often the landlord's | Swelling from a slow weep looks identical to swelling from neglect; only a timeline separates them |
| Oven | Door glass, seals, racks, and the chattels list entry it belongs to | Depends | Burnt-on soil is a cleaning matter; a cracked door is a damage matter |
| Refrigerator | The seal, the shelves, and whether it appears on the chattels list at all | Depends | Only in play if the landlord supplied it and it was recorded at the start |
| Ventilation system | Filter, ducting connection, and where the duct actually discharges | The landlord's obligation | Kitchen extraction is a healthy homes standard, not a bond item |
| Wall/Doors, Floors, Windows, Blinds/Curtains, Lights/Power points | Splashback junction, floor at the dishwasher, the window above the sink | Depends | The kitchen half of these rows is where a leak shows itself first |
Fair wear and tear is a burden of proof, not a judgement call
Landlords argue about fair wear and tear as though it were a matter of taste. It isn't. Tenancy Services defines it as the gradual deterioration of things that are used regularly in a property when people or pets live in it, and names worn kitchen fixtures as an example of it. Then it puts the burden squarely on one side: it is for the landlord to prove that the damage is not fair wear and tear. You go first. If you cannot clear that step, nothing after it matters.
Only once you have cleared it does the tenant have to show the damage was careless rather than intentional, or neither. If it was neither careless nor intentional, the tenant is not liable at all. If it was careless, they are liable up to four weeks' rent or the landlord's insurance excess, whichever is lower — and a landlord cannot ask for or accept more than that. Intentional damage carries no such cap. Tenants on income-related rents are capped at four weeks' market rent or the excess, again whichever is lower.
Every kitchen claim walks the same three steps.
Depreciation is why a new benchtop is never the claim
The second thing that surprises owners is what gets awarded. Where damage is established, the Tribunal can order the party who caused it to repair it or pay compensation — taking depreciation into consideration. Not replacement cost. Not what your invoice says. The depreciated value of what was actually lost, so that the landlord is not left better off than if the tenant had met every obligation.
Run that through a kitchen. Twelve-year-old melteca doors in a Manukau unit, hinges already tired, and a tenant who cracks a door on the way out. You replace the door, you claim the door, and you are awarded the depreciated value of a twelve-year-old door. Do the same sum across a whole room and the number gets uncomfortable — which is why the answer is almost never "claim it". It is "plan for it". A rental kitchen has a life, that life ends whether or not anybody was careless, and a bond is not a sinking fund. Owners who work this out stop treating turnover as a recovery event and start treating it as a scheduled maintenance cycle across the portfolio.
I get asked to quote kitchens for bond claims a few times a year. The owner is always quoting the new kitchen. The claim is for the old one.
One photograph per item, not one per room
Now the discipline that makes any of the above usable. The failure in almost every kitchen inspection is photographic: eleven wide shots taken from the doorway in mixed light. They prove the kitchen existed. They prove nothing about the sink base.
The rule is one photograph per item, framed so the item fills it, taken at the start and repeated at the end from roughly the same spot. "Item" means a door — not "Cupboards". It means the floor of the sink base, the dishwasher gable, the benchtop cut-out edge, the silicone junction at the splashback, and the drawer with the suspect runner in it, open. Number them, and reference those numbers in the Damage/Defects column against the row they belong to. Then you have a comparison instead of a memory.
Tenancy Services says to take photos at the initial inspection and again at the final one, and to avoid capturing the tenant's belongings where you can. It says both parties should complete the report together, sign and date it, and keep a copy. Do all of that — but not for compliance. The Tribunal accepts photographs, inspection reports and tradespeople's quotes as evidence, and expects two spare copies of everything at a hearing, one for the adjudicator and one for the other party. A dated pair of tight photos plus a repair quote is a claim. A wide shot and a strong feeling is an opinion.
The ventilation row bites the landlord, not the tenant
Back to that tenth row. Under the healthy homes ventilation standard, a room with a cooktop needs an extractor fan or rangehood that vents to the outside. For units installed from 1 July 2019, that means a minimum diameter of 150mm including ducting, or an exhaust capacity of at least 50 litres per second. Fans installed before then have to vent outside and be in working order, and when they fail they must be repaired or replaced with something meeting the current spec. Ducting has to be connected, intact and installed so air flows freely — no unnecessary kinks, and not discharging into the roof space.
So "Ventilation system — not acceptable" is not a bond note. It is a job, and it sits on the critical path before you re-let. Check behind the unit while the kitchen is empty and you have access, because a recirculating rangehood that dumps straight back into the room does not satisfy the standard on its own — the distinction between ducted and recirculating extraction is the whole ball game, and the wider landlord obligations that touch the kitchen are worth reading before your next turnover. Landlords must also keep records showing how they comply, and a tenant who asks has to get that information within 21 days. Which is why you ask the installer for fan diameter, ducting and flow rate in writing at handover, not two years later.
What goes wrong
The most common failure is the one this article opened with: recording a conclusion instead of a condition. "General wear" in the Damage/Defects column is not evidence of anything, and "not acceptable" against "Cupboards" tells an adjudicator, a tenant and your own trades exactly nothing about what to do next.
Second is claiming the wrong thing. Owners routinely try to put a fifteen-year-old kitchen's retirement onto a departing tenant's bond, and it never lands, because the landlord has to clear the fair-wear-and-tear step first and a fifteen-year-old kitchen is the textbook example of gradual deterioration. The honest question at that point is a different one: whether the room needs new doors or a whole new kitchen, and who is funding it. It is not the bond.
Third is the cleaning trap. The standard is that the property be left reasonably clean and tidy — not professionally cleaned, not as-new. Tenancy Services is explicit that professional cleaning is only required where it is needed to reach that standard, and that a clause demanding it may be unenforceable even where it sits in the tenancy agreement. Burnt-on oven soil is a cleaning matter and a fair one to raise. An oven with a cracked door is a different category altogether, and folding the two into one note weakens both.
Fourth is signing to make it go away. The bond refund form needs the landlord and every tenant on the bond record, and the guidance is blunt: only sign if you agree with what is written on it, and never sign a blank form. That is aimed at tenants, but it cuts both ways — a landlord who signs off a full refund because it is Friday and there is a viewing at five has closed the file. If you cannot agree, talk first; if that fails, either party can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal, with mediation available beforehand.
Fifth is treating the four-week inspection cap as a restriction rather than an entitlement. Nobody has ever lost a bond dispute for holding too much dated evidence. The owners who come out of a turnover cleanly are the ones who photographed the sink base every time they were in the building anyway — which, on the Manukau and Ōtara portfolios we refresh, is usually enough on its own.
What to have before you sign the bond refund form
- The initial property inspection report in your hand at the inspection — not in the car, and not on a laptop back at the office.
- A photograph per item rather than per room: each door face, each drawer open, the sink base floor, the dishwasher gable, the benchtop cut-out edge, the silicone junction at the splashback.
- A date on every image, and a matching image from the start of the tenancy taken from roughly the same position.
- A note against the specific row in the Damage/Defects column that describes what changed, not how it looks.
- A tradesperson's quote for anything you intend to claim — quotes are accepted as evidence, and a number with nothing behind it is a guess.
- Clarity on which appliances are on the chattels list, because an appliance you never recorded is one you never supplied as far as the record goes.
- The ventilation check: does it vent outside, is the ducting connected and intact, and can you show the diameter or flow rate in writing?
- An honest call on whether each item is gradual or an event — and if you cannot say which, whether you hold any dated evidence that would let anybody else say.
Frequently asked questions
How often can a landlord inspect a rental property in New Zealand?
At most once every four weeks. Each inspection needs at least 48 hours' notice to the tenant and must take place between 8am and 7pm. Boarding houses run on tighter numbers — 24 hours' notice, and 8am to 6pm. Most landlords use a fraction of what they are entitled to, which is exactly why so many end-of-tenancy kitchen disputes have no evidence sitting behind them.
Can I claim a damaged benchtop against the tenant's bond?
Only if you can first prove it is not fair wear and tear, and that burden sits with the landlord rather than the tenant. If you clear that step and the damage was careless, the tenant's liability is capped at four weeks' rent or your insurance excess, whichever is lower; intentional damage has no cap. The Tribunal also takes depreciation into consideration, so an old benchtop pays out as an old benchtop, not as the new one you end up installing.
What counts as fair wear and tear in a rental kitchen?
Tenancy Services defines fair wear and tear as the gradual deterioration of things used regularly in a property when people or pets live in it, and names worn kitchen fixtures as an example. In practice that catches most of what a kitchen does over a tenancy: soft close stopping, runners getting stiff, edgetape lifting, laminate dulling. Tenants are not responsible for any of it. Marks that clearly came from an event rather than from use — a cracked door, a hole in a gable — fall into the other category, and that is the one worth photographing properly.
Does the tenant have to leave the kitchen professionally cleaned?
No. The standard is that the property is left reasonably clean and tidy. Tenancy Services says professional cleaning is only needed where it is required to reach that standard, and notes that a clause demanding it may be unenforceable even if it appears in the tenancy agreement. Burnt-on oven soil is a fair thing to raise at a final inspection. Expecting a ten-year-old kitchen back at showroom condition is not.
What happens if the landlord and tenant disagree at the final inspection?
Talk first, because most bond disagreements are settled between the parties without anyone filing anything. If that fails, either party can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal, and mediation is available before a hearing. Do not sign a bond refund form you disagree with, and never sign a blank one. Once a completed refund application is lodged, it takes up to ten working days to process.
Send us the address and what the inspection found
If the inspection told you the kitchen is finished — and in a rental it usually says so through the sink base and the benchtop long before it says so through the doors — MTN Kitchens & Maintenance builds out of its own workshop in East Tamaki and turns out ten-plus kitchens a week. Supply and install sit under one contract and one invoice, so nobody is pointing at anybody else when a bench does not fit. No showroom, which is why the pricing is trade rather than retail. Twenty-three years, two thousand-plus kitchens, and a single kitchen installs over five to seven days.
Send through the address, the unit count if there is more than one, and whatever the inspection gave you. A floor plan is ideal, but photos and a rough scope are enough to price off, and a trade-priced number comes back inside 24 hours — drawings sharpen it from there. Maintenance is in the name too: if the honest answer is a sink base, a rangehood that finally vents outside and a run of new doors rather than a new room, say so and we will quote that instead.