Cracked benchtop in a WA rental: who pays, and how fast.
The lessor pays, unless the tenant caused it beyond fair wear and tear. A benchtop is not an essential service, so the 24 hour and 48 hour urgent repair clocks in the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 only start if it is unsafe or it takes out water or cooking. Otherwise it is an ordinary repair to be done within a reasonable time. Budget $450 to $1,200 to stabilise a crack, $1,200 to $2,500 for one run, and $4,200 to $6,500 for a full kitchen in mid-range engineered stone.
Who is responsible, and by when
Western Australia has no prescriptive minimum-standards code for kitchens the way some eastern states do. The obligation on a lessor is to keep the premises in a reasonable state of repair having regard to their age, character and prospective life, and on a tenant to keep the place reasonably clean and not to cause damage. Almost every benchtop argument in the Peel is decided on those two sentences plus the property condition report.
| Situation | Who is responsible | Timeframe | Typical 2026 cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crack out of a sink or cooktop cut-out, no sign of impact | Lessor. Age, movement or a missing brace, not tenant conduct. | Ordinary repair, reasonable time | $450 to $1,200 repair, or $1,200 to $2,500 to replace the run |
| Chip on the edge from a dropped pot or an appliance | Tenant, as damage beyond fair wear and tear. | Agree in writing at the time, or settle at vacate | $250 to $550 on-site colour matched repair |
| Sink cabinet swollen from a weeping tap or failed silicone | Lessor. It is a maintenance failure, and water is the lessor’s responsibility. | Urgent if water is escaping: essential service 24 hours, other urgent 48 hours | $180 to $350 to re-bead, $600 to $2,500 if cabinetry has gone |
| Slab dropping, rocking, or a sharp broken edge | Lessor, because the premises are now unsafe. | Urgent repair, 48 hours | $180 to $450 make-safe, then repair or replacement |
| Damage that also disables cooking or water | Lessor. | Essential service timeframe, 24 hours | $180 to $450 make-safe, repair priced separately |
| Heat scorching or crazing from a tenant appliance or hot pans | Tenant, and it is a manufacturer warranty exclusion as well. | Settle at vacate against the property condition report | Not repairable. $1,200 to $2,500 to replace that run |
| Benchtop is dated but sound and the tenant asks for stone | Nobody. There is no obligation to upgrade a functioning benchtop. | Owner’s choice, usually at a lease turnover | $2,800 to $6,500 supplied and installed |
| Damage found at the final inspection, not listed in the property condition report | Contested. The report decides it, and compensation is on depreciated value, not new for old. | Bond claim, then the Magistrates Court if it is disputed | Repair cost, discounted for the age of the benchtop |
| Black mould in the silicone at the splashback | Shared. Lessor renews the failed bead, tenant must report it and ventilate. | Ordinary repair, reasonable time | $180 to $350 |
General guidance for Western Australia in 2026, not legal advice. Consumer Protection at the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety publishes the current tenancy rules and forms. Costs are Peel region supplied-and-fitted figures: see the full price list.
Urgent versus non-urgent, and the access rules
The two clocks
WA splits urgent repairs in two. Anything that is an essential service has to be arranged within 24 hours. Other urgent repairs, meaning faults that make the property unsafe or risk further damage, have to be arranged within 48 hours. A benchtop rarely lands in either category by itself, which is why a tenant reporting a hairline crack on a Friday afternoon is not a weekend job and should not be treated as one.
It flips the moment the failure is structural or wet. A slab that has dropped at a dishwasher cut-out, a shard of stone sitting loose at child height, or a burst flexible hose soaking the sink base are all repairs you want attended inside 48 hours, both because the Act expects it and because the damage is compounding while you decide. Our emergency triage page is a good link to send the tenant so they can prop it and photograph it properly before anyone attends.
Notice and access
- Non-urgent repairs and maintenance: at least 72 hours written notice, entry between 8am and 6pm, not on a Sunday or a public holiday unless the tenant agrees.
- Urgent repairs: attend as soon as you can, with whatever notice is reasonable in the circumstances.
- Routine inspections: capped at four in any 12 months, with written notice in the required window.
- Practical reality: a benchtop needs two visits. Template takes about 45 minutes and can happen at an inspection. Install is 6 to 8 hours and the tenant needs the kitchen clear.
- Tell the tenant this: leave the sink unused for 24 hours after install while the silicone cures. That single line prevents most callbacks.
Property managers: one quote, one owner approval, one install day
Send the address and a photo. You get an itemised written quote you can forward to the owner, and we coordinate access directly with the tenant once it is approved.
Fair wear and tear, the property condition report, and the vacate inspection
Bond disputes over kitchens are won and lost on the property condition report. In Western Australia the lessor or agent prepares it and gives the tenant two copies within seven days of the tenant moving in, and the tenant has seven days to mark it up and return one. If a hairline at the sink cut-out was there on day one and nobody wrote it down, you will not recover it at the end.
Fair wear and tear
- Loss of gloss on a 15 year old laminate top around the sink and the cooktop.
- Fine scratching on a dark engineered stone from ordinary use.
- Silicone that has gone slightly yellow and shrunk back over a decade.
- A movement crack in an older Greenfields or Coodanup home where the house has settled.
Tenant damage
- A chip with a fresh, bright break face, or an impact star around it.
- Burn rings or a cloudy patch beside the cooktop from pots straight off the flame.
- Etching on marble or a dulled patch on engineered stone from oven cleaner or bleach.
- A cut-out enlarged for a new sink or appliance without written permission.
- Swollen chipboard where a leak was obvious for months and never reported.
Where the tenant is liable, compensation is on the depreciated value of the benchtop, not the price of a new one. A 12 year old laminate top damaged beyond repair does not get you a $6,000 stone kitchen out of a bond. Take dated photos at every routine inspection: they are the cheapest evidence you will ever collect, and they are what a bond claim actually turns on. Our care guide is worth including in the tenant welcome pack for exactly this reason.
Repair or capital improvement? The tax line, in plain words
Broadly, work that restores something to the condition it was in is a repair and is deductible in the year you pay it. Work that replaces an entire item, or upgrades it to something better, is capital. Re-bonding a mitre, replacing a failed silicone bead or repairing a chip normally sits on the repair side. Replacing the whole benchtop, and certainly going from laminate to stone, normally sits on the capital side and is written off as capital works at 2.5 per cent a year over 40 years. Repairs needed because of damage that existed when you bought the property are treated as capital as well, however small they are.
One more that catches people out: an insurance payout to a landlord is generally assessable income, and the repair you pay for out of it is generally deductible. It is the timing across two financial years that causes the grief. All of this is general information, and your accountant is the one who decides how it applies to your situation. What we can give you is an itemised invoice that separates repair work from replacement work, which is exactly what your accountant will ask for.
The honest advice: stone is often the wrong call for a rental
We fabricate stone. We do not supply laminate, and for a standard rental in Greenfields, Coodanup or Pinjarra, laminate at roughly $200 to $320 per square metre supplied and installed, so $900 to $2,200 for the kitchen, is frequently the better decision. It does not raise the rent, and a tenant will not pay more for stone in that segment. If that is your property, use a joiner and keep the difference.
Stone earns its money in a rental in three situations: a property at the top of its local market, a short-stay or holiday let around Halls Head, Dawesville, Falcon or the marina where photos drive bookings, or a property you intend to sell within a few years, where the work does double duty. In all three, entry engineered stone at $480 to $650 per square metre is the right grade, not a $1,300 porcelain. If you are close to selling, read the pre-sale numbers before you spend anything, and if you want the top you have to last, the maintenance schedule is the sheet to hand a tenant.
Legacy engineered stone in a tenanted property
If the existing top is pre-2024 engineered stone, removal is not a simple strip-out. That work has to be notified to the WorkSafe WA regulator and done wet with on-tool extraction and respiratory protection, and the kitchen is a controlled work area while it happens, so the tenant and any pets are out of that room for the day. Expect it to add $200 to $500 over a plain laminate strip-out, and expect a fabricator who shrugs and says they will just cut it in the driveway to be breaking the law. The rules are set out on our silica page, and the material comparison for the replacement is on the porcelain versus engineered stone page.
Questions owners and property managers ask
Who pays to repair a cracked benchtop in a WA rental?
Is a broken benchtop an urgent repair under WA tenancy law?
How much notice do I have to give the tenant to replace a benchtop?
Should a landlord put stone in a Mandurah rental, or laminate?
Is replacing a rental benchtop a tax deduction or a capital improvement?
Can the old engineered stone be removed while the tenant is living there?
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