Media Statement for immediate release
 

21 July 2010

Landlords welcome new tenancy laws

The New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation congratulates the Hon Phil Heatley for successful concluding the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which was finally passed into law today.

The reform process has been in the making since 2004 and the Federation is extremely pleased to see measures that they have been lobbying for are finally going to be introduced.

Federation President Mr Evans said “the new laws are about upholding the balance between landlords and tenants and enables landlords to better manage their rental accommodation”.

Approximately 90% of all applications made to the Tenancy Tribunal are made by landlords, with the vast majority involving rent arrears.

A key change to reduce Tribunal applications will be that abandoning the premises with rent arrears and no reasonable excuse will be an unlawful act, where tenants can be required to pay landlords up to $1,000.

Evans said that “up until now, there have been no disincentives for tenants to abandon their rental property owing money. If they were ever found, all they had to do was pay back what they owed. Many tenants probably thought it was worth a go. We successfully argued that there needed to be consequences to hold people accountable and help reduce the Tribunal time taken up with this sort of problem”.

The Federation has argued for many years to have changes introduced that will help them better manage their properties and protect neighbours. Some of these that are now going to be introduced include:

Landlords can have any reasonable expenses they incur in recovering a debt reimbursed by the tenant.
 
The introduction of new unlawful acts by a tenant with exemplary damages going to the landlord. Circumstances include the tenant’s failure to quit the premises at the end of a tenancy, using the premises for unlawful purposes, harassing other tenants or neighbours, and exceeding the maximum number of allowed residents as stated.
 
The tenancy can be terminated if the tenant assaults ,threatens or allows others to assault any of the following, landlord, landlord’s  family member, owner , owners family member, agent, other occupier, or neighbour.
 
Landlords can immediately dispose of goods left behind at a tenancy if they obtain a market assessment of the value of the goods is less than the cost of storing, transporting and selling them.
 
Evans said that his organisation looks forward to continuing their work with Government, tenant groups and other organisations on other matters that affect rental property.

ENDS

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