Renters should not be denied secure tenancies, and a safe and healthy place they can call home.  

The Government is proposing changes that will make it easier and faster for landlords to unfairly evict tenants. Under the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, landlords will no longer have to give a legitimate reason for kicking people out of their homes. This will undermine housing security for thousands of renters and put them at the whim of their landlords. Submissions are a chance to tell the Government what matters to you and how this law change will affect you.  Below are instructions on how you can draft a submission on this legislation in your own words.

 

 

The Coalition Government is choosing to tip the balance in favour of property investors and landlords over people who rent their homes. Almost 1.5 million people live in rental homes in Aotearoa. In a housing and cost-of-living crisis, the Government has a responsibility to make it easy and affordable to rent, not make it easier to kick people out of their homes. 

 

Here's how you can submit 

This guide sets out prompts to help you understand the Bill and draft your own submission. You choose if you want to make a quick submission, or a detailed one.   

  • Your experience is your expertise. Personal stories are proven to shift people’s opinions more than just facts and figures. We’ve got your back with the talking points below! They’re based on evidence showing why the RTA Bill is a terrible idea, so you can focus on sharing how this affects you or your whānau personally. 
  • Submissions are open until 11:59pm on Wednesday 3 July 2024.
  • Start with your overall position on the Bill - we recommend you strongly oppose this Bill. 
  • If you’re comfortable speaking in front of the Select Committee, click the Yes button to make an oral submission. This is a great way to show that the issues have a human face. 
  • If you submit in person, focus on your top issues rather than reading from your written submission. Speak about how the Bill affects you and your community, and the main reason why you oppose it. Leave time for questions at the end so that Committee members can ask any clarifying questions. 
  • Use the issues-based prompts below as a guide for the key issues to include. 
  • The more you put your submission into your own words the better. Submissions that are identical are considered together, rather than being read individually.   

 

 

What your submission can say:  

Set out your overall position on the Bill. Wording we suggest is: 

  • I strongly oppose the Bill  
  • I request that the Social Services and Community Select Committee recommend it does not proceed through further stages in Parliament.  

Choose the issues you’re most concerned about and use the prompts below to talk about them. Make your submission as individual as possible – use these as prompts for your own words, rather than copy and paste.   

Examples – key ways the Bill will harm people who rent:  

  • Allowing no-cause evictions will mean more people who rent are evicted for no good reason, leaving more people at risk of losing their home, having to move houses more frequently, or even facing homelessness in the middle of a housing crisis. 
  • Letting landlords evict people with no cause creates a risk of discrimination based on race, gender identity, sexuality, or disability. While discrimination is against the law, if landlords don’t have to provide justification for why they’re kicking people out it will be nearly impossible for tenants to show they’ve been discriminated against.  
  • Moving house frequently undermines people’s opportunity to put down roots in their community. It’s often expensive and extremely stressful. Children may have to move schools, it affects relationships with neighbours and friends, and people lose connections with local public and community services. Aotearoa already has shockingly high rates for frequent moves by renters, this will only make it worse.  
  • Allowing landlords to evict renters with no cause means landlords can get away with evicting people because they tried to uphold their tenancy rights, such as requesting basic maintenance or any other tenancy rules – including the new rights to keep pets. 
  • No-cause evictions undermine every other tenancy right. While retaliatory evictions are against the law, it is impossible to hold retaliatory landlords accountable if they aren’t required to provide any reason or justification for why they’re kicking someone out. 
  • Tenants will have significantly less time to find a new place to live if the notice period is cut from 9 weeks to just 6 weeks when landlords want to sell the house vacant, or move their own family in, at significant stress and expense – again, risking homelessness.  
  • Despite the Government’s rhetoric, changes like these won’t make anything easier for tenants – they’re using misleading and bad faith arguments, while knowingly shifting the balance in favour of landlords.  

Prompts – using some examples from above and these questions, share your concerns in your own words;  

  • In your own words, explain why landlords should not be able to arbitrarily evict tenants from their home with no reason or cause. 
  • How often have you had to move rentals? What impact did moving have on you and your family or flatmates - financially, emotionally, or for your wellbeing? 
  • Have you ever been afraid to enforce your rights with your landlord, such as maintenance or repairs, because of the risk they might retaliate? 

Recommendations – tell the Committee what you want to see changed in this Bill. Examples could be:   

  • Reject no-cause evictions and retain the current requirement for landlords to have specific justifications for ending a tenancy.  
  • Restore 63-day notice periods for landlords to evict tenants because they or their family wishes to move in. 
  • Restore 90-day notice periods for landlords to evict tenants to sell the premises with vacant possession. 

 

If the above changes are not picked up by the Select Committee, then: 

  • Prohibit landlords from evicting tenants with no-cause when the landlord is in breach of the healthy home standards or any other tenancy right. 
  • Ensuring that the no-cause evictions and the changes to notice periods will only apply after the Bill comes into force, and will not be imposed on existing tenancies.  

 

Other issues – you could also use this submission as an opportunity to express the important changes you think should be made to the Residential Tenancies Act instead: 

This bill is focused on no-cause evictions and pet bonds, but it’s important to let MPs know that we want meaningful change to make renting fairer. 

  • Meaningful controls on rent increases: Rent prices are at a record high. Tenants deserve meaningful controls on rent increases – so these can’t go up higher than the rate of inflation.  
  • Transparency on rental costs between tenancies: Landlords shouldn’t be able to use new tenancies to rocket up the rent, especially where they have been no improvements made to the house. Landlords should be required to tell potential new tenants how much they charged the previous tenants. Increases above inflation should only be allowed when the previous tenancy was at a subsidised rate, or there have been significant improvements to the property.  
  • Rental Warrant of Fitness: All homes should be safe, warm, and healthy to live in. The Healthy Homes Standards lack enforcement, have too many exemptions, and fall short of what’s needed for a healthy home. We need a Rental Warrant of Fitness that has improved standards and a mandatory compliance check when a new tenancy agreement starts. 
  • Landlord register: Many landlords provide a good service, but most tenants have also lived in homes that fall short. A lack of oversight or reporting means the Government does not have the tools to hold landlords to account. We need a landlord register to keep track of how many properties are rented, who owns them, how much rent is charged over time, and compliance with a Rental Warrant of Fitness