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Residential Tenancies Act 1986

Boarding house tenancies - Rights and obligations of landlords and tenants

66IA: Protection from liability for landlord who complies with contaminant regulations

You could also call this:

“A landlord who follows the rules about dangerous substances in a boarding house cannot be blamed if the place is unsafe because of those substances.”

If you are a landlord of a boarding house, you are protected from being held responsible in certain situations involving contaminants. This protection applies when there is a contaminant present in the premises, but either the premises are not actually contaminated, or you don’t know that they are contaminated. Also, there must be rules in place about that specific contaminant that apply to your premises.

If you follow these rules, you can’t be held responsible under this law for not providing clean or habitable premises because of the contaminant’s presence. This means that even if the contaminant is there, as long as you’ve done what the rules say, you won’t get in trouble for it.

It’s important to know that you are only considered to know about contamination if tests done according to the proper method have shown that the premises are contaminated. If you haven’t seen these test results, you’re not expected to know about any contamination.

This protection is part of the section 138C(3)(c) of the law, which talks about the rules for contaminants in rental properties.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS447457.

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66I: Landlord’s ongoing obligations, or

“Landlords must keep boarding houses clean, safe, and in good repair, following rules to protect tenants.”

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66J: Other obligations of landlord, or

“The landlord must follow rules to protect tenants, like keeping services working and telling tenants about changes or sales.”

Part 2A Boarding house tenancies
Rights and obligations of landlords and tenants

66IAProtection from liability for landlord who complies with contaminant regulations

  1. Subsection (2) applies to a landlord of a boarding house during any period where—

  2. a contaminant is present at the premises, but either—
    1. the premises are not contaminated with the contaminant; or
      1. unknown to the landlord, the premises are contaminated with the contaminant; and
      2. regulations made under section 138C(3)(c) are in force in respect of the contaminant and apply in relation to the premises.

        1. The landlord (having complied with those regulations during that period) is not liable, under this Act, for not having provided the tenant with clean or habitable premises during that period on the basis of the presence of the contaminant in the premises.

        2. For the purpose of this section, a landlord knows that premises are contaminated only if the landlord knows that tests carried out in accordance with a relevant prescribed method have established that the premises are contaminated.

        Notes
        • Section 66IA: inserted, on , by section 42 of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2019 (2019 No 37).