This week’s question comes from Barry (paraphrased):
An impending termination has gone sour; the tenant is now threatening to issue me with a trespass notice barring me from entering onto the rental property. Can he do that?
Our response:
The short answer is yes.
In general, the rules of trespass is covered by the Trespass Act 1980 (“the Act”). The Act itself protects anyone who lawfully occupies a piece of land
or a particular place as well as any other person occupying under his/her authority (e.g. employees, guests). Not only can your tenant trespass you
from your rental, so can his sub-tenants, employees and guests.
That said, your rights to enter onto the property under s48 of the Residential Tenancies Act (“RTA”) are absolute, a trespass notice cannot take that away
from you. For example, you will still be able to enter onto the property to inspect and carry out maintenance so long as the requirements of s48 are
satisfied (with proper notice, stand down period etc.). In general, we recommend landlords to err on the side of caution. Happy tenants don’t issue
trespass notices. If there is a trespass notice, chances are the situation is already pretty dire. We suggest that you give pause to weigh up the cost-benefit
of exercising your s48 rights as not to aggravate the relationship any further. It is harder the predict the behaviours of an angry person. If termination
is already on the cards, it may be wise to focus on smooth transitioning of tenancies rather than the acknowledgement of being right all along.
Now, it is worthwhile to examine the mechanisms of a trespass notice. The Police website gives a fairly good overview of how a trespass notice works....
