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Residential Tenancies Act 1986

Miscellaneous provisions

135: Recovery of money paid by mistake

You could also call this:

“If you pay money by mistake in a tenancy, you can ask to get it back, but sometimes you might not get all of it.”

If you’re part of a tenancy agreement and you pay money to the other person by mistake, you can ask the Tenancy Tribunal to help you get that money back. This applies whether you made the mistake because you misunderstood the law or the facts about your agreement.

However, the Tribunal might decide not to make the other person pay back all or some of the money. This could happen if the person who got the money took it thinking it was rightfully theirs, and then used it in a way that would make it unfair for them to pay it back. The Tribunal will think about how paying the money back might affect everyone involved before making a decision.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM96406.

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Part 5 Miscellaneous provisions

135Recovery of money paid by mistake

  1. Subject to subsection (2), where one party to a tenancy agreement pays any amount to the other party under a mistake of law or fact relating to the agreement, that party may, upon application to the Tribunal, recover that amount from the other party.

  2. In any case to which subsection (1) applies, the Tribunal may decline to order the repayment of the amount in question, in whole or in part, if the Tribunal is satisfied that the person who received the money did so in good faith, and has so altered his or her position in reliance on the validity of the payment that, in the opinion of the Tribunal, having regard to all possible implications in respect of other persons, it would be unfair to order the repayment of the whole or any part of that amount.

Compare
  • Residential Tenancies Act 1978–1981 s 90 (SA)