Changes to residential tenancies act

If you are the owner of property in New Zealand, living overseas and you would like to rent your property you may be interested in the recent amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act.

A law change (Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2010) means any landlord who leaves New Zealand for more than three weeks must appoint a New Zealand agent to manage their property.

Advice of this appointment needs to be given to the Department of Building and Housing by March 2011. If a landlord fails to do so they can be fined up to $1000. The amendment is one of first changes to the Residential Tenancy Act in more than 20 years.

Landlords with questions about the changes should visit the Department of Building and Housing website.