Home Owner Details - Legal Issues?

[aucklander2008]

Hi all!

I bet the situation I will describe here is not a common one, but I would appreciate your opinion regarding any legal trouble it might create. Or better, maybe you can let me know what section of a certain law clearly states anything about this.

Here is the story:
I am renting through an agency. I have a contract with them, all was good for the last three years, the feedback received from them was very good all the time.

I went to the local Council and asked for the contact details of the house owner. This is a perfect legal procedure, you fill in a form, they look into the system and tell you who the owner is. Free of charge. The form is called "Release of Ratepayer Details from the Rating Information Database (RID)" and is done under the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002. If the owner (the ratepayer) declared his contact details "confidential" then they are not released. In my situation, I got the name and address.

I want to contact the house owner directly and make an offer to buy the house (the property is not on the market). Assuming the owner is offended by this (I wouldn't see why, but you never know!) and he/she lets the agency know about my attempt, can the agency just kick me out from here without any reason? Or to increase rent to a level where I HAVE to vacate the property? After all, they would want to get involved in the sale and get 20-30K out of this, right? I can save that amount by initiating a "private sale". Better yet, I do not have to "move" into the house I buy, as I already live there. I wouldn't need an engineer's report as I know the house very well (in/out/under/above, etc. as I already lived here for more than three years).

What would you say it is the downside of such attempt?
Your opinions would help me a lot.

[Green Fish]

No legal issues at all.

You rent the house from the owner, not the rental agent, so you should have no concerns about what the agent might or might not do to you, because the agent is nothing more (or less) than the rental agent of the owner.

If the rental agent is trying to score a sale commission out of this, it won't work. You were not introduced to the property as a potential purchaser. You were introduced as a potential tenant. No sales commission, usually.

If you are unable to track down your landlord via the council or via LINZ records, there is one sure-fire method for making contact with the landlord: Don't pay the rent. He or she will be in touch very promptly.

[Dean@Massiveaction]

The answer to your question is yes, if you annoy the landlord he or she can give you 90 days notice for no reason and 60 days notice of a rent increase.

Why he or she would be angry at you wanting to buy the house is the question.

If you are planning on trying to pinch the property heavily discounted then you could get someone else to contact him so your name doesn't enter the equation until you buy it.

[Green Fish]

aucklander2008: What's the reason for wanting to buy the house now? It looks as if renting in the Auckland City Council area is still much cheaper than owning.

[Shalodge]

You dont have to go to Councils for Property Information.. Its pretty much freely available and comes with latest Tumonz.. Give me an address and Ill tell you who owns it and who holds the mortgage if any..

[aucklander2008]

Thank you all for replying to my question!

I did not know about TUMONZ, I looked it up on the net, seems a pretty comprehensive package. 345+GST.

I do not think one would think you can pinch the property "heavily discounted", as the owner will do his homework before making any decision.

Why buy? I would like to have my own place to adapt it to my own needs, not to put a mirror or a painting in a certain place on the wall only because there is a nail in there already. Or to install aircon. Or to replace the carpet because is not too great... and so on...

Saving was great when I was getting 8.5% interest only keeping them in the bank. But now I want to put them somewhere else, the bank gives less than 5%, you pay tax on that, and if you take the 4.2% inflation into account as well, the value of your savings is actually less in "real value".

[Perry]

Saving was great when I was getting 8.5% interest only keeping them in the bank. But now I want to put them somewhere else, the bank gives less than 5%, you pay tax on that, and if you take the 4.2% inflation into account as well, the value of your savings is actually less in "real value".

Your 'faith' in 4.2% inflation is mis-informed.
It's worse than that, so add a sense of
urgency to your attempted purchase.