Residential Tenancies (Protection of Tenant Testimony) Amendment

1. Title

This Act is the Residential Tenancies (Protection of Tenant Testimony) Amendment Act 2020.

2. Commencement

(1) This Act comes into force ten days after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.

3. Purpose

This Act’s purpose is to protect the rights of tenants to testify against their landlords before the Tenancy Tribunal and prevent them from being placed on blacklists because of it

4. Principal Act

The Principal Act refers to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986

5. Interpretation

Student Lodging is defined as lodgings, hostels or other forms of accommodation made available to tertiary students by a tertiary education institution registered in New Zealand as defined under Section 159 of the Education Act 1989.

Tenant Blacklist is defined as a list of tenant names and information designed by landlords to prevent or obstruct tenants access to a tenancy.

6. Section 109B Added (Offense to Create Tenant Blacklist)

After Section 109A of the Principal Act, insert the following;

109B - Offense to Create Tenant Blacklist

1) A Landlord, or group of Landlords, commit an offense against this Act by creating a independent list of tenants who have testified or appealed before the Tenancy Tribunal with the aim of;

a) Making access to a residential tenancy more inaccessible to a tenant

b) Making access to a commercial tenancy more inaccessible to a tenant

c) Intimidating a tenant against testifying before the Tenancy Tribunal with threat of being added to the Tenant Blacklist

2) An exemption to section (1) is given for situations where a successful case before a District Court, Tenancy Tribunal or other form of legal court rules in favour of the landlord in a settlement.”

7. Part 5B(c) Added (Right of Student Tenant to Tenancy Tribunal Hearing)

In Section 5B, after subsection 1(c), insert the following;

(d) subsections (a) to (c) does not provide an exemption to the rights of student tenants to seek dispute resolution through the Tenancy Tribunal with an accommodation provider and or a tertiary institution as per the guidelines under section 77 to section 120 of this Act

8. Part 5B(c) Added (Amended House Rules Guidelines)

In Section 5B, after subsection 5(b), insert the following;

(c) guidelines for dispute resolution between the students lodged in the premise, the accommodation provider and the tertiary institution through the Tenancy Tribunal

B.321 - Residential Tenancies (Protection of Tenant Testimony) Amendment Bill is sponsored by /u/Gregor_The_Beggar (National) as a PMB.

Debate will conclude at 6 PM, 15/09/2020.