In the current system you, the tenant, are responsible for holding your landlord to account. It’s not perfect, and we’re pushing for the Property Manager Regulation to improve this, but there are things you can do right now to hold your landlord to account.
What are your landlord’s responsibilities?
The law says that a landlord has to maintain their rental property in a reasonable state of repair. This doesn’t mean they have to keep the property in a perfect, modern condition but they do have to provide some maintenance!
Landlords are responsible for:
- Maintaining indoor spaces to meet all legally binding health and safety requirements, healthy homes standards and appropriate building codes. This can include things like maintaining plumbing, electrical wiring, cleaning the chimney, fixing water damage, fixing holes in walls to the outside and maintenance of whiteware (sometimes a fridge, washing machine, dishwasher etc.) provided with the tenancy.
- Locks and security by ensuring external doors, locks and windows are able to close properly.
- Carpets must also be maintained. If carpets become worn through everyday wear and tear or damage by a previous tenant you can ask your landlord to replace them.
- Trees and shrubs should be maintained by the landlord.
- Outdoor spaces including painting, and cleaning out gutters. Landlords and their agents (eg, tradies) don’t need permission before coming over to do outdoor maintenance.
- Pests must be removed from the property by the landlord but tenants must keep the property clean and tidy so that pets aren’t attracted to it. If you notice pests you should report this to your landlord immediately.
- Smoke alarms must be installed and working in each bedroom or within 3 meters of the main entrance to the bedroom, Each storey must also have a smoke alarm. Landlords are responsible for installing smoke alarms and tenants are responsible for replacing batteries.
What’s the first step?
Notify your landlord. In your email you should describe the issue, when you noticed it, what caused it and what you expect of them (what repairs need to be made). If an event due to the negligence of the landlord has caused damage to your personal property you should outline this here as well.
If your landlord doesn’t usually respond to emails or letters then you should contact them in the way they usually respond and send a follow up in writing immediately after, reiterating the situation and what you asked for in the phone call. Having this in writing will be helpful if you need to go to the tribunal.
If you don’t hear from your landlord within 7 days, or if you haven’t received notice of when the work is expected to be completed in 14 days then you should send your landlord a 14 day notice to remedy.
Sending your landlord a 14 day notice to remedy
Landlords are required to resolve maintenance issues within a reasonable time frame. This time frame can vary from getting a washing machine fixed in days to completing a permanent repair to the roof in months.
If the landlord hasn’t scheduled maintenance or carried it out within a reasonable timeframe then you can submit a 14 day notice to remedy. Tenancy services have a template that you can use to ensure all the required information is provided. If you’d like to make the request more friendly to maintain the relationship you can include the details in the template surrounded by your own wording.
Once the 14 days notice period expires you’ll have to decide if you want to go to the tribunal or not. In these situations it’s good to reach out for help from a tenant advocate. We have a list of places you can find them for free at rentersunited.org.nz/help.
My landlord has threatened to kick me out
It is illegal for your landlord to retaliate when you assert your rights. If your landlord retaliates we highly recommend reaching out for help from a tenant advocate. We have a list of places you can find them for free at rentersunited.org.nz/help.
If you end up going to the tribunal they can award you up to $6,500 if they find your landlord committed an unlawful act by providing retaliatory notice.
The information above does not constitute legal advice, if you need advice please reach out to one of our friends for free at rentersunited.org.nz/help