timing of notices under new arrears provisions?

[sparxNZ]

Hi All.
We have run into familiar dramas again with sporadic arrears, and I've found the new rules difficult to apply to the situation.
tenancy services gives 5 examples where the 5 day arrears notices can be given but none seem to cover our situation.
Rent was due Friday 3rd and did not come in. 14 day notice issued Monday 6th. We expect that the tenant will pay rent this friday, however for the purposes of the new provisions is the rent the tenant pays this coming friday considered to be last weeks missed rent or this weeks current rent?
When a tenant effectively misses just one weeks rent and becomes perpetually in arrears by one week... I'm trying to figure out what notices to serve and when.
This tenant has done this before and eventually caught up, but the amount of monitoring and chasing up I had to do over a 6 month period was just too high to justify. I'm keen to get rid of this tenant to be honest so would like to take advantage of whatever provisions in the rules I can in order to do so.

Cheers
Sparx

[Keys]

Fixed term? Forget it.

[sparxNZ]

Periodic. Fixed term expired 6 months ago and they did not wish to renew.

[RollingCloud]

Doesn't this answer your question? Of course the rent you assume will be paid this coming Friday will be the amount to be applied to the oldest outstanding rent, not the current. If that is all they pay and not the current rent in addition then you issue another notice when allowed.

From the tenancy Services website: Landlords may now apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to terminate a periodic tenancy if the following occurs:

On three separate occasions within a 90-day period, an amount of rent that was due has remained unpaid for at least five working days.

Example of a separate occasion:

Rent is due on 10 July. If, after five working days, some, or all, of the rent that was due on 10 July has not been paid, the landlord may issue a notice.

A second notice can be served if rent falls due again and that rent, or a part of it, has not been paid within five working days of the second due date. The second notice can be served regardless of whether the rent due under the first notice has been paid.

A third notice can be served in the same way as a second notice.

On each of the three occasions, the landlord gives the tenant written notice advising the tenant of the unpaid rent. The written notice must include:

• the amount of overdue rent
• dates for which the rent was/is overdue
• the tenant’s right to make an application to the Tenancy Tribunal challenging the notice
• how many other notices of overdue rent (that met these requirements) the landlord has given the tenant in the relevant 90-day period.

The landlord can then file an application to the Tenancy Tribunal within 28 days after the third notice was given to the tenant. The landlord will have to prove that rent was due and remained unpaid for at least five working days on three separate occasions within a 90-day period, and that the three notices given met the requirements above.

[erinak]

Yes, I would have thought so based on what sparx wrote. That is my understanding.

[artemis]

Does the due date count as a working day? I don't think so, meaning the first working day is Monday 6th. And the 5 working day arrears notice can't be issued until Monday 13th. Am I right?

[sparxNZ]

Does the due date count as a working day? I don't think so, meaning the first working day is Monday 6th. And the 5 working day arrears notice can't be issued until Monday 13th. Am I right?

It appears that way to me, so the tenant can remain one week in arrears in perpetuity and a 5 day arrears notice cannot be issued unless they are late by one day at some point in the future.

Sound right?

[Keithw]

Watch out also for the transition from rent in advance to overdue.
Prior to the law change, since rent was paid in advance, it did not become overdue until after the end of the week it was covering..
ie due to be paid on 1st, for rent covering 1st till 7th, it was not overdue until 8th.
ie tenants could perpetually sit on 1 week behind, depending upon how far ahead they would normally have paid.

the tenancy services description does not deal with the advance bit, and I am sure TT will still be thinking the same way as it always has, regardless of implied change in the TS description.