Important Residential Tenancies Act Information
October 2010

This month sees the introduction of several changes to the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), which affects the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants in New Zealand. This is the first time the Act has been amended since 1986, and changes come into force on 1 October 2010. A full summary of changes are available at the Department of Building and Housing website (http://www.dbh.govt.nz/).

However to help keep you up to date we have provided an outline of those changes we regard as most important below. We do hope this information is helpful and for more information please see the department website.

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Changes to the Act include:

• Landlords must appoint an agent if out of NZ longer than 21 days. You must also advise the tenant of your agent’s details and the Department of Building and Housing if a bond is held.
• Fixed-term tenancies become periodic at end of fixed-term. This is unless a notice is given by either party not sooner than 90 days before the end of the term and not later than 21 days before the end of the term.
• The definition of short fixed-term tenancy” has been reduced from 120 to 90 days.
• Landlord’s responsibility for abandoned goods has been simplified. While the landlord may dispose of foodstuffs and other perishable goods immediately in any way they see fit, there are new processes a landlord can choose from when dealing with any other goods left by a tenant who abandons the tenancy
  

A number of changes have also been made regarding non-compliance issues including:

• Value of existing monetary penalties has been increased
• More unlawful acts have been added to the Act
• Changes to ruling regarding damage or destruction of property.
• Increase of the Tribunal’s monetary jurisdiction from $12,000 to $50,000
• A party now has the right to be represented by counsel or other representative if a claim is in excess of $6,000.

Details of further changes and a full description of those mentioned above are available on the Department of Building and Housing website http://www.dbh.govt.nz/