Tenancy Agreements

[drelly]

Up until now I've been using the standard tenancy services agreement but I've found that this simply isn't broad enough and so I'm looking into drafting my own or adding appendices to the standard one. What sort of agreements and additional clauses do you guys use?

[Rach]

Submissions for tenancy agreement

We currently have a draft Tenancy Agreement we will be submitting to our lawyer and after reading some of the topics on these forums, it occurred to me that some of you may like to make submissions as to the content. If you would like to, please email your submissions to [email protected] by Friday 5th, March. We will also be submitting the agreement to our privacy consultant to fully ensure this agreement will be water-tight. When the agreement has been approved, we will make it available to download (at no charge) from our website. Please don’t be offended if you find your suggestion has not been included...we will look at all of them (providing we aren’t TOO inundated!) however, we will leave it up to our legal eagles to determine appropriate content.
Cheers,
Rachel

[donna]

Excellent Rach! - And welcome to the Forum.

Cheers,

Donna

[RentMaster]

Thanks Rach.

I look forward to seeing your tenancy agreement.

Good service.

[duck]

Hi Donna.
Where abouts can we find the tenancy agreement.
I'm starting out as a LL and am looking for something with considerable more coverage than the standard Residential tenancy agreement.
Any other customized forms/agreements I need to know about?
Or any pearls of wisdon?

Ta.

[revdev]

Hi Donna.
Where abouts can we find the tenancy agreement.
I'm starting out as a LL and am looking for something with considerable more coverage than the standard Residential tenancy agreement.
Any other customized forms/agreements I need to know about?
Or any pearls of wisdon?

Ta.

Hi duck,

You will find the standard TA here http://www.dbh.govt.nz/pub-new-tenancy . Have a good look through the website as it's a good place to get your basic understanding.

When you say "considerably more coverage" do you have any specifics? Keep in mind that tenants cannot contract out of the standard TA (even if you have their signature agreeing to everything you want!). By this I mean clauses such as "must have carpets cleaned after tenancy" is a common try on (I do it of course), but is probably not enforcable through the TT.

Have a look through the TENANT STUFF (NZ) section, as this has been discussed at length many times.

All the best
G

[duck]

Yeah, I've been through the TA at www dot dbh dot govt dot nz/pub-new-tenancy
As cube mentioned...
E.g. no pets, no more than 'n' people, no more than 'x' cars (all of which must be roadworthy), cleaning receipts for carpet and curtains to be provided at the end of the tenancy.
Not repairing cars on site, no cars that don't run on site, the number of people residing in the property. I'm sure there will be lots of other things, just can't think of them at the moment.

[hort1]

You can

only enforce at tribunal what is covered in the Residential Tenancy Act such as from your wish list is the number of people residing in the premises.
As far as enforcing they cannot repair cars on site would be darn hard, as far as cleaning carpet and curtains before they leave is as revdev said not enforceable.

The only" pearl of wisdom" is to get to know the RTA and to be pro active with rent arrears and damage i.e 10 day notice.
As a landlord you will have disappointing times you have to brush it off and move on a lot of your wish list would be nice to be able to enforce but I am sorry you cant.
Its part of owning property in areas that attract that type of tenant the only thing is to buy in better areas that attract the better tenant

Good luck.
Get to know the RTA inside out.

[Keys]

Laminate this and have it with the application forms.

Prospective tenats "know" the rules straight up.

If you wish to apply for this rental then you will need to fill out an application form.

I will then take a photo of all who will be residing in the property who are 18 or over (including dog, if any). I will also take a photo of driver’s licences to establish identity. This is to enable me to do a VedaAdvantgae credit check.

Bond is four weeks.

Rent is one to two weeks depending upon your income period.

My policy for missed rent is as follows:

In any six-month period: If you miss a rent payment I will issue a 10-day notice to remedy. If you miss a second rent payment I will issue a 10-day notice to remedy immediately followed by an application to the Tenancy Tribunal. If you miss a third rent payment I will issue a 90-day notice to vacate. This notice to vacate will not be withdrawn. No notices will be sent if the tenant contacts the landlord before the rent is missed and an agreement is entered into before the possibility of missed rent.

A copy of the RTA is provided with the tenancy and remains part of the chattels for this rental.

Tenancy Services may be contacted on 0800 83 62 62


Also, put the rent arrears policy into your tenancy agreement.

[Rolf]

If they do miss a payment then I pretty much follow your approach Keys, but I strictly prefer not to mention anything about missed rent to new tenants - in order not to encourage them to believe that missing rent is an option at all! It seems to work well.

[SuperDad]

Keys,

Do you do fixed-term tenancies at all?

If so, I guess you omit the bit about issuing a 90 day notice.

Paul.

[Keys]

Mostly periodic Paul.

Generally, the only FTT's I have are for 3 months and for borderline tenants in one way or the other.

[duck]

By this I mean clauses such as "must have carpets cleaned after tenancy" is a common try on (I do it of course), but is probably not enforceable through the TT.

only enforce at tribunal what is covered in the Residential Tenancy Act such as from your wish list is the number of people residing in the premises.
As far as enforcing they cannot repair cars on site would be darn hard, as far as cleaning carpet and curtains before they leave is as revdev said not enforceable.

Yes, I hear the fact that it is un-enforceable, but would like to have it in the Tenancy Agreement anyway.
Is it just a matter of writing something up that I'm happy with and using it instead of the TA at www dot dbh dot govt dot nz/pub-new-tenancy ?

The only" pearl of wisdom" is to get to know the RTA and to be pro active with rent arrears and damage i.e 10 day notice.
As a landlord you will have disappointing times you have to brush it off and move on a lot of your wish list would be nice to be able to enforce but I am sorry you cant.
Its part of owning property in areas that attract that type of tenant the only thing is to buy in better areas that attract the better tenant

Yeah, I understand this. We rented out a place a few years ago, to some people we knew. They in-turn let out the sleep-out to a skinhead.
the skinhead invited all his druggie mates to crash out there also. They burnt and carved swastikas into the walls and ceilings.
My father who had a few rentals, always insisted that the best you could do was to buy in a good area. Thats exactly what I plan on doing.

I will then take a photo of all who will be residing in the property who are 18 or over (including dog, if any). I will also take a photo of driver’s licenses to establish identity. This is to enable me to do a VedaAdvantgae credit check.

Wouldn't this be a breach of the privacy act?

Also, put the rent arrears policy into your tenancy agreement.

How do you mean by put in?
Do you mean attach a copy of the 10 working days' notice – rent arrears form?
Or do you mean... just write something up that says you will issue a 10 working days' notice – rent arrears form if they miss payment?
Or do you mean something else that I havn't seen yet?

Thanks allot for everyones help here. This does seem like a very active forum.

[revdev]

Yes, I hear the fact that it is un-enforceable, but would like to have it in the Tenancy Agreement anyway.
Is it just a matter of writing something up that I'm happy with and using it instead of the TA at www dot dbh dot govt dot nz/pub-new-tenancy?

Rather than going to all that effort Duck, just insert the extras you want in the comment section at the bottom of the TA. For example;

Maximum number of tenants is 2
All vehicles must have current rego and warrant
No vehicles to park on lawn
All lawn clippings/garden waste to be removed from property

Wouldn't this be a breach of the privacy act?

Not if you tell them you will be doing a credit check on them, and they then sign your pre-tenancy application form (also available from dbh website)

Cheers
G

[Keys]

Also, put the rent arrears policy into your tenancy agreement.

How do you mean by put in?
Do you mean attach a copy of the 10 working days' notice – rent arrears form?

My TA's are written in a Word Document and saved on my computer. Simple to add and remove conditions. The second and third page have all the conditions on and are saved as a seperate document. The first page is a template and I put the tenancy details in that one.