In light of the growing voice against The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill 218-1 (2020),
which the Associate Housing Minister Kris Faafoi is the face of, Mr Faafoi said the following,
‘…At the same time, the reforms protect the rights of landlords to terminate a tenancy under a range of justifiable reasons, including where a tenant has engaged in anti-social or illegal behaviour, or is at least three weeks in rent arrears.’
‘Landlords will still be able to terminate tenancies for a range of fair and justified reasons, that will be specified in law.’
‘Landlords have said that anti-social behaviour from ‘difficult tenants’ is the most common reason for issuing 90-day notices. Ninety days is a long time to put up with this kind of behaviour and going to the Tribunal to attain a shorter notice period may benefit landlords.’
Having gone through the language of the Bill, we consider these statements to be misleading if not disingenuous. While we can respect this government’s
wish to be pro-tenant and anti-landlords, we cannot stomach its misinformation campaign characterising the Bill as proportionate and fair-minded. The
purported safeguards for landlords are, in our opinion, cold comforts at best.
Let’s unpack*.
Right to terminate on grounds of rent arrear
Currently, landlords can apply for termination if the rent was, on the day of application, at least 21 days in arrears (s55(1)(a)) – a fairly straightforward
pathway.
The Bill introduces unnecessary complications.
On the one hand, it appears that the right is preserved.
On the other hand, in the case of periodic tenancies, a different and concurrent set of termination rules could apply to require the following:
- That there must be 3 separate occasions of rent arrears within a 90-day period. Each ‘occasion’ is...
