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Residential Tenancies Act 1986

Tenancy agreements - Rights and obligations of parties

38: Quiet enjoyment

You could also call this:

“The landlord must let you live in your rented home peacefully and comfortably without bothering you.”

As a tenant, you have the right to enjoy your rented home peacefully without anyone bothering you. This means your landlord, or anyone connected to your landlord, can’t interrupt your peaceful enjoyment of the place you’re renting.

Your landlord must not do anything that messes with your peace, comfort, or privacy while you’re living in the rented place. They can’t bother you or make it hard for you to live there comfortably.

If your landlord bothers you so much that it feels like harassment, that’s against the law. They’re not allowed to do that.

There’s a special rule about landlords entering your home when they think you’ve moved out. If a landlord comes into your home saying they thought you’d left, but they didn’t have a good reason to think that, they’re breaking the law.

When we talk about the place you’re renting, we don’t just mean the house or flat. We also mean any facilities that come with it, like a shared laundry or garden.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM95082.

Topics:

Housing and property > Renting

Rights and equality > Privacy

37: Vacant possession, or

“The tenant gets to move in and have the place to themselves when the agreement says they can.”

39: Responsibility for outgoings, or

“The landlord pays for general costs, while the tenant pays for things they use themselves.”

Part 2 Tenancy agreements
Rights and obligations of parties

38Quiet enjoyment

The tenant shall be entitled to have quiet enjoyment of the premises without interruption by the landlord or any person claiming by, through, or under the landlord or having superior title to that of the landlord.
The landlord shall not cause or permit any interference with the reasonable peace, comfort, or privacy of the tenant in the use of the premises by the tenant.
Contravention of subsection (2) in circumstances that amount to harassment of the tenant is hereby declared to be an unlawful act.
Without limiting the generality of subsection (3), the landlord commits an unlawful act under that subsection if the landlord enters the premises purportedly under section 48(2B) without any reasonable cause to believe that the tenant has abandoned the premises.
In this section premises includes facilities.

Compare

Residential Tenancies Act 1978–1981 s 47 (SA)

Notes

Section 38(3A): inserted, on 1 July 2016, by section 11 of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 26).