Warning comes in light of the second reading of the RTA bill
Tenants without “excellent” record are in a tight spot as the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) bill progresses through parliament, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ).
The RTA bill proposes to remove 90-day no-cause terminations, making it difficult and time-consuming for landlords to remove problematic tenants. Therefore, tenants without “excellent” rental history might find it challenging to find tenancies in the future.
“Over the last eight months, we have been engaging with the government on behalf of the roughly 100,000 rental properties our members manage to warn them of the unintended consequences of this bill,” said REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell.
She added that rental property owners might refuse to accommodate tenants without excellent rental history for fear that they cannot remove the tenants should there be issues in the future.
“Our feedback, and feedback from other property professionals, has largely been disregarded, and now things may start to get extremely difficult for rental property owners as they will have limited abilities to remove tenants who are causing problems in their rental properties or causing trouble with neighbours.”
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REINZ also pointed out the issues around fixed-term tenancies automatically converting to periodic tenancies, which was included in the second reading of the RTA bill.
“The change to fixed-term tenancies automatically converting to periodic tenancies will significantly affect areas with strong student populations such as Christchurch, Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin. Some of these areas are already struggling in a post-COVID environment, and these changes will just add further stress for rental property owners,” Norwell said.
Norwell advised rental property owners to consider consulting a property management professional who is updated with the current requirements and can help in resolving tenancy-related issues.
“It is extremely important that tenants' rights and their interests are protected, but the changes announced today have gone too far the other way. We believe that there needs to be more balanced in terms of protecting both tenants and rental property owners,” she said.
