Flooding information for landlords and tenants

Landlords with flood-affected properties need to be aware of their rights and responsibilities

The flooding and storm damage recently seen across the top of the North and Auckland has been a shocking sight.  Many buildings found their ground floor completely flooded, or even entire buildings slip away.

If you are a landlord in these circumstances, it is important for you to be aware of your rights and responsibilities regarding your property and tenants.

When rental property is destroyed, or so seriously damaged as to be uninhabitable, both landlords and tenants have various rights and remedies available to them around rent, repair and even termination of the lease.

For residential tenancies, these rules are set out in the Residential Tenancies Act 1986.

For commercial tenancies, the commercial lease agreement will have similar provisions, although the specifics about the rights and remedies available will vary depending on what was negotiated when the lease was signed.

If your property (or the property you live in) has been damaged we recommend taking legal advice before making any big decisions, to find the best course of action for you.  

Questions you’ll need to consider include:

  • Is my property uninhabitable or does it just needs repairs?  As a landlord, you may not be required to take any action if the property can be cleaned up quickly or without too much effort.  As your lawyer, we can help you look at the extent of the damage and advise you on the potential outcome.
  • Is rent relief required?  The law does not set out any formula for determining this.  Any rent relief (also known as ‘abatement’) will depend on how the tenant’s ability to use the property is affected and for how long, as well as the actual cause of the issue.
  • Can I use this situation to get rid of tenants I don’t like?  All the normal tenancy rules still apply, even when the situation is extraordinary, including giving appropriate notice to tenants. This is not an opportunity for landlords to do whatever they want.  It’s important to follow the right processes so you do not end up penalised in the Courts. We can help with this.

Cleaning up after a major weather event will probably be costly and involve a lot of work as it is.  It is well worth the small investment in getting good advice early to avoid further disputes down the track.

How we can help

Our highly experienced, trusted dispute resolution team can help guide you through your rights and obligations.  You can view our team here.

WRMK Lawyers takes all reasonable care to make sure that the information in this article is up-to-date and accurate at today’s date. It is necessarily general information and not intended as legal advice to be relied upon.

Our thanks to Pablo Hamber for writing this article.