What should a routine rental inspection cover?

A good routine inspection is three jobs in one visit: an early-warning system for maintenance, a compliance spot-check, and an evidence base being quietly built. Done consistently it takes under an hour, here is a repeatable shape for it.

The compliance minutes

• Press every smoke alarm's test button.
• Run the bathroom and kitchen fans, confirm they extract (the toilet-paper test) and vent outside.
• Glance at the heat pump filter, and at the outdoor unit for clearance.
• Open a window in each bedroom, painted-shut happens gradually.

The early-warning walk

• Ceilings and wall corners for moisture staining or mould, especially south-facing rooms.
• Under sinks and around the hot water cylinder for slow leaks.
• Outside: gutters, downpipe discharge, pooling against the house, and the general state of seals on the weather side.
• Anything the tenant mentions, asking "what needs fixing?" is the highest-yield question of the visit.

The record that makes it count

Photograph consistently: the same rooms, the same angles, every visit, plus anything notable. File photos and a few lines of notes against the property the same day, and log any maintenance items that came up so they enter the normal fix-it flow rather than the mental one. Proper written notice within the legal window before the visit, and no more often than the law's frequency cap, tenancy.govt.nz has the current specifics. An inspection record built this way settles bond disputes, satisfies insurers, and shows a Tribunal a property that is actually being looked after.