grimm

For those of you that are going to arrive in Auckland in the near future I would like to warn you of a certain scam that we fell for concerning rental properties:
As we'd never been to Auckland until the day we moved out here, we were unaware of the legal side of renting a house. We contacted a reputable realty company and they were very professional in finding us an apt within our first week. This was our dream pad in the Viaduct, opposite Team NZ's shed, on the water front.
We had explained to the company that we needed to rent fully furnished for a few weeks whilst we waited for the shipment to arrive with all our goods. So they decided to CHANGE our contract from needing to give them 21 days notice to 7 days. This was initialled and we had copies of all the paper work. Bond and rental were all paid and we loved our new place.
We lived here for a few weeks until our shipment arrived and moved in to a 2 bed unfurnished in the same building.
There was never any new paper work drawn up for the new apt - no bond lodgement form or new contract. Having never rented before we didn't notice.
On giving the company 14 days notice when we found our 3 bed house they withheld our bond stating that we owed them a weeks rent and bond.
No one would help us with contesting this issue:
They never drew up a contract for the new apt so as far as we were aware we only had to give them 7 days notice and thought we were being nice giving them double. They never filed a bond for that apt = the bond was for the original one - 7 days notice was given as said in writing.

So for all of you that will sign rental forms - the law states that 21 days notice is the only standard....it will never be any longer or shorter.
I hope nobody else goes through what we did as we are very angry with the rental company and lost $1000.

P2L

Hi Grimm

So sorry to hear of your problems. I take it that you spoke to DBH?

We are currently trying to get released from a 12 month rental agreement, without much luck though.

To cut a long story short, there was an 'incident' in our street 3 weeks ago involving the man opposite and the police. My 3 year old had just gone to bed and my 12 year old was in the bathroom and we were oblivious to any problem till our daughter comes through to the back of the house and tells us the police had been outside the house shouting at someone to put the knife on the ground

Since then our 3 year old has been having nightmares almost on a nightly basis and my 2 gilrs don't like going in the bedroom on their own. So today we have asked our landlord to release us from our agreement, and have given them 3 weeks notice. Although they have been really helpful in trying to find alternative rentals they seem very reluctant to actually say that they will release us.

The problem is, we may have found another rental with another company but until we are released can't do anything about it.

I have emailed DBH today and are waiting to see if they can advise us. if not, not sure what to do, just know that we don't want to stay here.

I think it's really useful that you have posted your experience, for people to be very aware of what they are signing, and although we signed for 12 months, until today we weren't aware that there is no way to get out of this agreement.

cypherpunk

Did you take it to the Tenancy Tribunal? I don't know the ins and outs of the Residential Tenancies Act (it sounds like you ended up with a new tenancy without realizing it) but they would have sorted it out one way or another. The 21 days is the default minimum notice that a tenant can give for a non-fixed-term tenancy, but you can vary it in the contract if a contract exists.

cypherpunk

You can't just unilaterally give them three weeks notice, that doesn't apply to your type of tenancy. You need to come to a mutual agreement to end the contract. Usually in these cases a letting agent will agree to find another tenant and you will only pay for the time the property was empty and the cost of advertising, so try suggesting that to them. The Tenancy Tribunal will only agree to end the tenancy early in cases of change of circumstances causing "hardship" but the definition of this is intentionally vague.

Littletoe

I can highly recommend the tenancy tribunal, the people are helpful, friendly and unbias. The DBH, just deal with the bond issues. I'm sorry that you've both had such dreadful experiences.

Have you considered counselling for the three year old? I work for Victim organisation, and I would be happy to give you a telephone number for someone in your area to contact you and give you advice on this issue.

Never be afraid to stand your ground with rental issues. The system here is very good, most people just don't know their rights.

Littletoe

Our landlord released us early from our fixed term, but we had SIGNED paperwork from both parties. If they've said they'd release you, get it documented. And start keeping a DIARY of all the conversations you've had and what your landlord has said.