Press Release – Allen Realty’s Top Tips for Landlords
Allen Realty offer their Auckland clients a comprehensive, yet flexible residential management service for landlords who
require an experienced specialist with proven results. Whether they own one property or hundreds, Allen Realty’s
commitment to excellence and innovation translates to a proactive service, with a focus on communication and customer
service.
One of the problems the Allen Realty team assist their landlords with is noisy tenants. Unfortunately for the landlord,
rather than complain to the police or noise control people from the council, affronted people will often complain
directly to the landlord about the noise coming from their tenant’s rental property. There are no easy solutions to this
problem but it is a problem that needs to be managed with care. Property management is about managing people and
relationships and the steps taken to address problems like this will determine whether landlords can salvage a positive
long term relationship. As Allen Realty advise, the most important issue to consider is efficient tenant selection at
the beginning to ensure that the right tenant is selected the first time round which should minimise the potential for
any problems like noise.
Section 38 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1984 (RTA) confirms that a tenant is entitled to quiet enjoyment of a
property. Section 40(2C) requires that tenants will not interfere with the ‘reasonable peace, comfort, or privacy of any
other person residing in the neighbourhood’. Section 326 of the Resource Management Act defines excessive noise as “any
noise that is under human control that interferes with the peace, comfort and convenience of any person”.
As the Allen Realty team will attest, it is difficult to terminate a tenancy due to noise and this can generally only be
done by the Tenancy Tribunal. A landlord is not allowed to issue a notice to terminate a tenancy in retaliation for something. Noise can be associated with this
so landlords should avoid issuing a 90 day notice to terminate due to noise as there is the potential for a claim
against them. However, they can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal for termination but they are unlikely to get termination
of a tenancy due to noise for one or two complaints. There should be a history of events recorded, including complaints
from neighbours and multiple noise control breach notices, and notices that the landlord may have issued.
Allen Realty, Auckland’s award winning property management company aims to avoid problems like noise with their careful
tenant selection policy. For more information please visit the website at http://www.allenrealty.co.nz.