The Residential Tenancies Act sets out the demands on a landlord to provide a safe and healthy home – and yet still a few get it badly wrong.

Most landlords are pretty good and do the right thing when their tenants call about a legitimate problem. Others, as in the case below, aren’t so quick to jump.

Worse, some landlords (none we work with) choose wilful ignorance, born of an attitude that if complaining tenants can be ignored long enough the substandard state of their rental property will be forgotten. Only it isn’t and eventually the situation earns the landlord a ticket to their own hearing at the Tenancy Tribunal.

Hole in floor costs landlord $5,000

Earlier this month the tribunal ordered a landlord to pay $5,000 after a tenant fell through a hole in the dining room floor of their Auckland property, per Stuff.co.nz.

The tenants had contacted the property manager on several of occasions between November 2022 and May 2023 to get issues in the house fixed, including a collapsed dining room floor, rotting floor panels, and door fixtures.

They were in contact again when one of the tenants fell through the rotting floor and in June gave the landlord their 28 days’ notice terminating the tenancy. Only then did the landlord swing into action, hiring a contractor to glue a piece of wood over the hole. Too little, too late.

The tenants took their case to the Tenancy Tribunal, where adjudicator Joon Yi ruled the landlord had failed to maintain the premises in a reasonable state of repair and therefore committed an unlawful act.

Yi ordered the landlord to compensate the tenants $2,000 for nine weeks loss of use of the dining area and a further $3,000 in exemplary damages for the landlord’s failure to maintain the premises.

“The landlord should have attended to the issue soon after being notified in November 2022 especially given that the premises was of plaster cladding,” Yi said.

Disgruntled tenants lodge 28,000 applications each year

The case above is a microcosm of strained tenant-landlord relationships.

Every year, roughly 28,000 tenants lodge an application with the tribunal, a civil court that leaves the onus of enforcement on the shoulders of disgruntled tenants.

Forcing a satisfactory resolution takes time and money. If the errant landlord fails to pay up, the affected tenant requires a judgment issued by the District Court before pursuing additional processes to enforce payment….requiring more time and money.

This is why the New Zealand system is set up for mediated solutions and settlements, rather than going all the way to a court judgment.

Still, it would be far simpler if landlords did the right thing.

Key provisions concerning the safety of a rental property

The Residential Tenancies Act 1986 requires landlords to provide and maintain rental properties in a reasonable state of repair.

The Act does not directly regulate the standard of rental properties. However, it determines that landlords must comply with all requirements in respect of buildings, health, and safety under any enactment so far as they apply to the premises.

In practice, this means landlords need to be broadly aware of health-related and safety-related requirements in the following laws:

  • Building Act 2004 and the Building Code
  • Health Act 1956
  • Housing Improvement Regulations 1947
  • Bylaws made under the Local Government Act 2002, set by individual councils
  • Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Regulations 2019

Tenants can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal if a landlord isn’t providing a safe and healthy home. Tenancy Services can take enforcement action against landlords who rent properties which don’t meet minimum standards.

Don’t let small problems fester. Call 0800 GOODWINS to ensure your property ticks the box on safety and health standards.