New tenancy laws coming into effect Feb 11 2021

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › New tenancy laws coming into effect Feb 11 2021

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ... | 13

6889 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3363

Trusted

Subscriber

#2631239 6-Jan-2021 15:25

gbwelly:

sir1963:

the landlord has given notice that a tenant has been at least five working days late with their rent payment on three separate occasions within a 90-day period."

Good grief, this one could continue on and off indefinitely. And I'd say it will happen fairly often, not because of any malicious intent, just some people just have drama after drama.

A few months ago my property manager accidentally sent me a rent arrears notice due to an administrative error at their end.

When I called them to get it sorted the office lady told me that she was surprised when she saw my name pop up on the list of arrears, because "it's usually the same people who appear on this list week after week".

compound

89 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 43

#2631262 6-Jan-2021 15:56

alasta:

compound:

I feel very lucky we currently have a good tenant. Previous tenants have been a nightmare (including family) renting out directly and through an agency. The house sat unoccupied for a long time whilst we decided whether we would continue trying to find a decent tenant for an older house. The rental income was not the issue as we were not demanding a top price but the fear of another tenant abusing and trashing the house because it was affordable.

I have no desire to become a landlord but, if I did, I would probably want to have a one or two bedroom apartment/townhouse at the higher end of the market because these types of properties tend to attract mature professionals.

Of course that doesn't guarantee that you're going to get a good tenant, but from what I've seen most of the problems seem to affect low end 3 or 4 bedroom houses where you tend to get young people house sharing and the occupants often encourage each other's bad behavior. For that type of property it probably makes economic sense to leave it empty if you can't find a mature tenant with impeccable history.

A newer house doesn't bring better tenants. From experience, an older person may have better values and respect for property. The perfect renter is very rare to see as they don't often get asked to leave !

14 days to evict after assaulting you gives them plenty of time to absolutely trash the property and if assault is already involved, they probably aren't worried about further charges. Unfortunately they move on to the next house to do the same thing because they cant just be thrown out onto the street.

elpenguino

3577 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2939

#2631267 6-Jan-2021 16:07

compound:

A newer house doesn't bring better tenants. From experience, an older person may have better values and respect for property. The perfect renter is very rare to see as they don't often get asked to leave !

14 days to evict after assaulting you gives them plenty of time to absolutely trash the property and if assault is already involved, they probably aren't worried about further charges. Unfortunately they move on to the next house to do the same thing because they cant just be thrown out onto the street.

Yes, they can be thrown out onto the street. A private landlord has no obligation to house anyone.

When this bad tenant moves onto the next place, I assume (never been a landlord) the new landlord checks references and asks 'where were you living before now and why did you leave'?

With the current housing shortage, there's a great incentive to not get yourself thrown out of your rental and make yourself a poor choice as tenant.

Let's not live in fear of the 0.01%.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

networkn

Networkn
32864 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15454

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2631270 6-Jan-2021 16:10

elpenguino:

Let's not live in fear of the 0.01%.

You are kidding right? You are out by at least a couple of decimal points in my experience :)

alasta

6889 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3363

Trusted

Subscriber

#2631272 6-Jan-2021 16:18

It has always surprised me how easily some people manage to get through background checks. When I moved into my current place I had to provide a tenancy reference, a work reference, and I vaguely recall some other stuff like a credit check. I consider this entirely appropriate, and had no objections to it.

Are some landlords not checking this stuff? Or are rogue tenants faking references, etc?

elpenguino

3577 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2939

#2631274 6-Jan-2021 16:20

networkn:

elpenguino:

Let's not live in fear of the 0.01%.

You are kidding right? You are around by at least a couple of decimal points in my experience :)

I recall you have accused me of kidding before. You must be kidding right?

Back on topic, you think I'm wrong? Is that because you have been a bad tenant very often? :-)

Yes, I am kidding about that.

But not about my estimate. A thread on bad tenants is going to end up like a thread on violent crime. We remember the outrageous cases but we don't remember the thousands of cases where nothing more dramatic than a stain occurs. It's called confirmation bias.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

Lego

Shop now for Lego sets and other gifts (affiliate link).

compound

89 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 43

#2631276 6-Jan-2021 16:21

elpenguino:

Yes, they can be thrown out onto the street. A private landlord has no obligation to house anyone.

When this bad tenant moves onto the next place, I assume (never been a landlord) the new landlord checks references and asks 'where were you living before now and why did you leave'?

With the current housing shortage, there's a great incentive to not get yourself thrown out of your rental and make yourself a poor choice as tenant.

Let's not live in fear of the 0.01%.

Not being an expert on this, they use another family member to apply, lie (not as bad as assault) or go complain to Work and Income to sort them out.

Technofreak

6657 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3477

Trusted

#2631280 6-Jan-2021 16:39

mattwnz:

IMO NZ needs a ghost house tax, and to make sure our housing stock is all used, unless there is good reason for a house to be empty.

You can be sure there will be good reasons. A ghost tax, while it has merit, would be almost impossible to police. A lot of bureaucracy and cost for no benefit.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

sir1963

3428 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3756

Subscriber

#2631287 6-Jan-2021 17:06

gbwelly:

sir1963:

the landlord has given notice that a tenant has been at least five working days late with their rent payment on three separate occasions within a 90-day period."

Good grief, this one could continue on and off indefinitely. And I'd say it will happen fairly often, not because of any malicious intent, just some people just have drama after drama.

Yep, and if you rent it to one person, they get in a "partner" and a few months later the person you rented it to decides to move on you can not unreasonably refuse to continue the rental with the partner, someone you have done no background checks on etc etc.

This will be HUGE boon to gang members who will send in an associates partner to rent the property and within a year it will be a gang pad and it will be near impossible to get rid of them.

sir1963

3428 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3756

Subscriber

#2631289 6-Jan-2021 17:15

A newer house doesn't bring better tenants. From experience, an older person may have better values and respect for property. The perfect renter is very rare to see as they don't often get asked to leave !

14 days to evict after assaulting you gives them plenty of time to absolutely trash the property and if assault is already involved, they probably aren't worried about further charges. Unfortunately they move on to the next house to do the same thing because they cant just be thrown out onto the street.

It does not help when the police will not press charges for vandalism, destruction of property or what ever, leaving it to the landlord as a "civil matter". The chances of a landlord getting paid out for deliberate damage is close to zero.

Mind you their maximum liability is now the excess or the bond which ever is the lower.

Landlords can not insist on renters insurance, but the landlord must supply a copy of their insurance policy to the tenants.

sir1963

3428 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3756

Subscriber

#2631293 6-Jan-2021 17:21

elpenguino:

compound:

A newer house doesn't bring better tenants. From experience, an older person may have better values and respect for property. The perfect renter is very rare to see as they don't often get asked to leave !

14 days to evict after assaulting you gives them plenty of time to absolutely trash the property and if assault is already involved, they probably aren't worried about further charges. Unfortunately they move on to the next house to do the same thing because they cant just be thrown out onto the street.

Yes, they can be thrown out onto the street. A private landlord has no obligation to house anyone.

When this bad tenant moves onto the next place, I assume (never been a landlord) the new landlord checks references and asks 'where were you living before now and why did you leave'?

With the current housing shortage, there's a great incentive to not get yourself thrown out of your rental and make yourself a poor choice as tenant.

Let's not live in fear of the 0.01%.

WONG. The new laws make it extremely difficult to get rid of a bad tenant.

Fake references are common as mud, and with the new right to pass the tenancy on to a flatmate/partner where the landlord can not unreasonably refuse, it will make it much much easier for bad tenants to shift into a house without the landlord having a say.

I would suggest that the bad tenants are much closer to 1%, maybe higher.

The government and social housing are exempt from these rules.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

scuwp

3927 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2510

#2631304 6-Jan-2021 17:46

The overall result will be higher rents and harder to get into a property, the 2 very things this government was trying to address. It will mean more homelessnes and fewer rentals...fail. I am all for healthy homes but some of the requirements (mostly heating) are so ridiculously over-the-top as to be laughable in some parts of NZ. Most owner occupied houses in NZ would NOT meet the new standards and yet are perfectly livable and healthy.

Some of the other changes are balanced and reasonable and most landlords who look after their properties and tenants and treat as a "business" won't have a problem with these. The scaremongering of landlords suddenly selling up en-mass is just crap. The majority will adapt, and hopefully the slum lords will fade away.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

BlinkyBill

1443 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1100
Inactive user

#2631308 6-Jan-2021 17:59

sir1963:

...

This will be HUGE boon to gang members who will send in an associates partner to rent the property and within a year it will be a gang pad and it will be near impossible to get rid of them.

Almost all gangs buy their gang pads as a means to launder criminal proceeds, I mean revenue streams. Individual gang members rent, but not the gang pads.

sir1963

3428 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3756

Subscriber

#2631317 6-Jan-2021 18:18

BlinkyBill:

sir1963:

...

This will be HUGE boon to gang members who will send in an associates partner to rent the property and within a year it will be a gang pad and it will be near impossible to get rid of them.

Almost all gangs buy their gang pads as a means to launder criminal proceeds, I mean revenue streams. Individual gang members rent, but not the gang pads.

Or in one case I know of, the house owner owed them a lot of money.... so he was "encouraged" to pay it off by giving them the house.

gbwelly

1263 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 776

#2631333 6-Jan-2021 19:35

scuwp:

The overall result will be higher rents and harder to get into a property, the 2 very things this government was trying to address.

Yep, every time they fiddle with the RTA either one or the other happens. Ring fencing? Guess the tenant is now paying the full cost of the mortgage, rates, insurance and enough for the income tax bill too because interest rates are so low. Healthy homes? The tenant is paying for insulation and those extractor fans etc. End of 90 day notices/periodic tenancies? The tenant better be squeaky clean or not gonna happen, etc etc.

It can only be fixed by increasing housing supply but this government seems to think you can just pass a law to fix the problem.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ... | 13