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News & Updates

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30-12-1899

Review of the Residential Tenancies Act

  1. News
  2. 1999
  3. December

Reforms announced Minister for Building Issues, the Hon Clayton Cosgrove, announced (22 September) a package of reforms that will be the basis of an amended Residential tenancies Act.

Key gains for landlords include:

  • Allowing landlords to recover collection costs incurred in enforcing Tenancy Tribunal orders through a private debt collection agency. In the past landlords were only able to recover costs incurred when enforcing an order through the Court system.
  • Providing for some tenant breaches to become unlawful acts that can result in exemplary damages as an alternative to eviction. These would include sub-letting or assigning a tenancy without consent, over-populating the premises or creating neighbour problems.
  • Working party to be established to investigate greater flexibility in the redirection of benefits to landlords.
  • New right of entry for the purposes of an appraisal by a real estate agent or building inspector. (Currently landlords are reliant on tenant good will to negotiate such access).
  • Tenancy Tribunal able to make an order against a guarantor of a party to a tenancy agreement. Currently if a landlord wishes to pursue the guarantor to a tenancy agreement (e.g. for rent arrears) they cannot go to the Tenancy Tribunal – they must go to a District Court or Disputes Tribunal, which involves time and expense.
  • Tenants to pay all water charges – where metered

Key gains for tenants include:

  • Creation of new unlawful acts such as landlords interfering with the supply of services (e.g. water) to the premises or breaching building, health and safety regulations
  • Landlords who intend being abroad for more than three weeks will be required to appoint someone in New Zealand to manage their tenancies for the duration of their absence
  • Landlords will have to notify tenants at least three weeks before a fixed-term tenancy ends if they are not going to renew the tenancy. Fixed term tenancies that expire with no new agreement being signed will automatically become periodic tenancies, whereby tenants must give three weeks notice and landlords give three months notice, if either party wants to end the tenancy. Currently there are no written rules on the rights and obligations for either party giving notice once a fixed tenancy term has expired

Further work is being done on how the Act connects to rejected legislation including the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill (re: boarding houses) and the Residential Tenancies (Damage Insurance) Bill and the Unit Titles Act. Once the final decisions are taken, a draft Bill will be developed for Parliament to consider in early 2007.

TENANT DAMAGES BILL – Rejected

During the month (14 September) the Social Services Select Committee recommended to Parliament that the Residential Tenancies (Damage Insurance) Amendment Bill not be passed. [Note that this is in addition to the recent defeat of the Residential tenancies Amendment Bill – re: boarding houses etc]. Following strong lobbying from various groups, including the Federation, the Committee was unconvinced that the proposed measures would protect innocent tenants from the consequences of damage caused by other tenants. Whilst the Bill will not proceed further, it is understood that the Department of Building & Housing will include some insurance related issues to be considered as part of the ongoing review of the Residential Tenancies Act and the Unit Titles Act.

REVIEW OF THE ACCOMMODATION SUPPLEMENT – Submissions closed

Written submissions to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) review of the Accommodation Supplement closed 30 September 2006. The Federation office filed a written submission earlier in the month.

The Review sought feedback on 3 key areas:

  • What are the good things about the Accommodation Supplement?
  • Are there any problems with the Accommodation Supplement?
  • How could financial assistance for housing costs be improved?

A report is to be made to Ministers later this year.

FAMILY TRUSTS – Tax increase?

Press reports (see Appendix A items 1, 2, & 4) indicate that the government plans to review the tax treatment of family trusts – a popular entity used by residential property investors.

Proposals include raising the top trust tax rate to 36% from 33%. There are approximately 244,000 family trusts registered with the IRD.