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Residential Tenancies Act 1986

Boarding house tenancies - House rules

66P: What tenant may do if he or she objects to house rules

You could also call this:

“A tenant can ask a special court to change or remove unfair house rules.”

If you don’t agree with a house rule, you can ask the Tribunal to look at it. You can do this even if you knew about the rule when you started renting. The Tribunal can decide if the rule follows the law.

When you ask the Tribunal to check a rule, they can do a few things. They might tell the landlord to use the rule in a certain way. They could change the rule. Or they might say the rule shouldn’t be used at all.

If the Tribunal makes a decision about a rule, your landlord must follow it. It’s against the law if your landlord keeps using a rule that the Tribunal said was not allowed. It’s also wrong if they don’t use the rule in the way the Tribunal said, or if they don’t make the changes the Tribunal ordered. Your landlord can’t use a rule that the Tribunal has removed.

You can find more information about what makes a house rule allowed in section 66O(2).

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3283918.

Topics:
Housing and property > Renting
Crime and justice > Courts and legal help
Previous

66O: Landlord may make house rules, or

“The owner of a boarding house can make and change rules about how to use the house and its services, as long as the rules are fair and legal.”

Next

66Q: Landlord has right to enter premises at any time, or

“The person who owns the boarding house can go inside whenever they want, but they can't use the house stuff unless they live there too.”

Part 2A Boarding house tenancies
House rules

66PWhat tenant may do if he or she objects to house rules

  1. A tenant may apply to the Tribunal for an order declaring a house rule to be unlawful on the grounds that it breaches section 66O(2).

  2. Subsection (1) applies even if, when the tenancy was entered into, the tenant had notice of the relevant house rule.

  3. The Tribunal may, on the application of a tenant, make any of the following determinations in relation to a house rule:

  4. require the landlord to apply a house rule in a particular manner:
    1. vary the rule:
      1. set the rule aside.

        1. A landlord commits an unlawful act if he or she, in breach of an order of the Tribunal made under this section,—

        2. adopts or maintains a house rule that has been declared unlawful; or
          1. refuses to apply a house rule in the manner ordered by the Tribunal; or
            1. does not give effect to a house rule as varied by the Tribunal; or
              1. purports to give effect to a house rule that has been set aside by the Tribunal.

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                  Notes
                  • Section 66P: inserted, on , by section 49 of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2010 (2010 No 95).