"...immediate termination of the tenancy". How long to enforce TT order?

[BigWal]

OK – here’s the story. I now have a TT order which states “Failure to pay the rent and rent arrears ... will result in immediate termination of the tenancy”.

Shoot me now, but my tenant seems OK, just in a bit of a hole with regards to cashflow. As of this coming Friday (the due date from the TT ruling) he’ll be 1 week in arrears. Depending on how long the termination process takes I’m trying to decide if I can give him a little more wiggle room before it gets to that.

What does the "will result in immediate termination of the tenancy" statement mean in the TT order? Does it mean that:

• I have to get another TT ruling that the payment has not been met (with the inevitable delays getting another TT hearing date) before I can start termination via the DC / bailiffs etc? Or,
• I can go down the DC / bailiff route, prove non payment, and kick off termination in around 2 days?

If the former, the bond won’t cover the rent owed by the time I get termination, so that won’t be an option. If the latter, I may be able to give him some more time without too much risk before going down that route.

And just for the record, inspections to date have been fine, and I’ll be kicking another one off tomorrow to establish a baseline, just in case.

[BigWal]

BTW - I searched pretty hard on PT for any previous posts about the above, but didn't find anything. I also tried the Google searches below, as the PT search is a bit lacking.

site:Propertytalk.com "immediate termination of the tenancy"

as well as

"immediate termination of the tenancy" site:.nz

If anybody else has an example of better search terms I'd appreciate it.

[BigWal]

And apologies for the notifications anybody got while editing the above post to try and stop the stupid editor turning <colon><P> in the first query into an emoticon.

[Keys]

Usually 48 hours following the writing of the order as it can be appealed.

Note, be careful. Once the situation for termination has happened, you need to terminate within 90 days or you have granted a periodic tenancy.

[BigWal]

As usual, thanks Keys. 90 days limit noted. But my question still stands - do I have to go back to the TT first, or can I go direct to the District Court with proof of non payment and the TT order as it stands? In order to obtain possession, I mean.

[Keys]

Straight to the District Court.

Assumption is made that the TT order is a possession and monetary order as well.

[skid]

Could you bring me up to scratch how you got to this point? Did you previously take the tenant to the TT for rent arrears-win and the tenant then paid upo to date but this clause was put onto the result for the future?

[BigWal]

Could you bring me up to scratch how you got to this point?

I served a 14 Day Notice, plus a repayment proposal. No response to the latter, some promises regarding the former.

Mediation was scheduled. I attended, they didn't.

TT hearing was scheduled.

Tenant then paid a lump sum, but by the time the hearing came up they were in arrears again.

Tenant didn't turn up to the hearing, I did.

Adjudicator asked me if I wanted to terminate immediately, but I requested partial repayment of the arrears on top of each 'normal' rent payment until they are back to paying 2 weeks in advance.

Which is what was decided. Plus the usual clauses (90 days etc.)

[skid]

So Im assuming that if he doesnt come up with the figure(rent+partial repayment)you can then enforce immediate termination?

[BigWal]

That's the plan.

(Initial post edited to add the following)

... although I haven't decided exactly when to do so - given that I'll have 90 days after the first breach to decide whether to go ahead. Will depend on whether the tenant and I make satisfactory progress sorting this out.