Compliance for landlords in NZ: the full checklist for 2026

What does compliance mean for a NZ landlord in 2026?

If you rent out a property in New Zealand, "compliance" covers eight separate areas. Most of them are governed by the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 and enforced by Tenancy Services (part of MBIE). The rest sit under the Healthy Homes Guarantees Act, the Building Act, and a small handful of insurance and disclosure rules.

This guide walks through each area, what specifically is required, and the financial penalty for getting it wrong. The information here applies to private landlords renting residential properties in New Zealand — not commercial leases and not professional property managers (who have their own incoming registration regime).

The eight compliance areas

1. Healthy Homes Standards — heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture/drainage, draught stopping
2. Healthy Homes Compliance Statement — required attachment to every new or renewed tenancy agreement
3. Bond lodgement — lodge with Tenancy Services within 23 working days
4. Tenancy agreement — written, RTA-aligned, with specific compulsory clauses
5. Smoke alarms — working long-life alarms in every bedroom, hallway, and self-contained unit
6. Insurance disclosure — tenant must be informed about the property's insurance status
7. Rent increases — once every 12 months maximum, with proper notice
8. Property condition — entry inspection, ongoing reasonable repair, and weathertightness

Healthy Homes Standards

The Healthy Homes Standards apply to every private rental in New Zealand as of 1 July 2025. There are five separate standards:

• Heating — at least one fixed heater capable of heating the main living room to 18°C. Heat pumps, wood burners, and electric heaters can qualify; portable heaters and unflued gas heaters do not.
• Insulation — ceiling and underfloor insulation that meets the 2008 Building Code R-values (R2.9 for ceiling in most NZ regions, R1.3 for underfloor).
• Ventilation — kitchen and bathroom extractor fans venting outside, plus openable windows in every habitable room.
• Moisture ingress and drainage — adequate drainage and guttering, plus a ground moisture barrier under suspended floors where appropriate.
• Draught stopping — block or seal unreasonable gaps and holes in walls, ceilings, windows, doors, and floors.

Penalties for non-compliance can reach $7,200 per breach. Tenancy Services has the full standards documentation including the heating-capacity calculator.

Healthy Homes Compliance Statement

Separate from meeting the standards, you also have to document that you meet them. Every new or renewed tenancy agreement must have a Healthy Homes Compliance Statement attached. The statement must:

• Identify the property
• State the current level of compliance with each of the five standards
• Be signed and dated by the landlord
• Be given to the tenant before the tenancy starts (or at renewal)

Failure to provide a Compliance Statement when required is a separate breach from failure to actually meet the standards. You can be penalised for both.

Bond lodgement

If you take a bond from a tenant, you must lodge it with Tenancy Services within 23 working days of receiving it. The lodgement is done online via Bond Hub. The bond is held by the government in trust, not by you.

Maximum bond is four weeks' rent. Holding the bond yourself (rather than lodging it) is a breach of the RTA with penalties up to $1,000.

Tenancy agreement

Every tenancy must have a written tenancy agreement signed before the tenant moves in. The 2021 RTA amendments made this mandatory — verbal agreements are no longer enforceable for new tenancies.

The agreement must include:

• Names and contact details of landlord and tenant
• Property address
• Rent amount and frequency
• Bond amount (if any)
• Tenancy start date
• Whether the tenancy is fixed-term or periodic
• A statement of the tenant's right to give notice
• A copy of the Healthy Homes Compliance Statement
• A copy of the insulation statement (where applicable)

Tenancy Services publishes a free template tenancy agreement that meets all RTA requirements.

Smoke alarms

Every NZ rental must have working long-life photoelectric smoke alarms installed:

• In every bedroom or within 3 metres of every bedroom door
• In every hallway and living area on each level
• In every self-contained unit (e.g. flats, sleepouts that are part of the tenancy)

Long-life means a 10-year sealed battery. Replaceable-battery alarms don't meet the standard for rentals. Tenants are responsible for changing batteries during the tenancy if you use a non-sealed alarm — but the landlord must install a compliant unit at the start.

Failure to install or maintain compliant smoke alarms can trigger a Tenancy Tribunal claim and penalties up to $4,000.

Insurance disclosure

Under the 2020 RTA amendments, landlords must:

• Tell the tenant in writing whether the property is insured
• Disclose the excess payable under the policy (the tenant's liability for careless damage is limited to the excess or four weeks' rent, whichever is lower)
• Update the tenant if the insurance status changes during the tenancy

The disclosure typically goes into the tenancy agreement itself or as an attached schedule. Failure to disclose is a separate RTA breach.

Rent increases

You can increase rent on a tenancy once every 12 months maximum. The 2020 RTA reform removed the previous "every 180 days" rule for periodic tenancies and aligned both fixed-term and periodic tenancies on the 12-month cycle.

The increase requires:

• 60 days' written notice before the new rent takes effect
• The notice must state the new rent amount and the date it applies from
• The notice must be in writing and signed

Increasing rent more often than every 12 months, or with insufficient notice, makes the increase unenforceable. The tenant can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to recover any over-paid rent.

Property condition

Two related obligations sit here. First, the property must be in reasonable repair at the start of the tenancy and throughout — fixtures working, weathertight, clean, safe. Second, you must conduct a property condition inspection before the tenant moves in, document it (with photos), and provide a copy to the tenant.

The condition report is what protects you when there's a dispute about damage at the end of the tenancy. Without a documented entry condition, the Tenancy Tribunal generally cannot determine what damage is the tenant's responsibility versus pre-existing.

Specific disclosure obligations beyond the basics

A few other disclosures apply in specific situations:

• Methamphetamine contamination — if a property has been tested and contamination is above the regulated level (1.5 micrograms per 100cm² as of 2017), it must be disclosed to incoming tenants and remediated. Mandatory testing is not currently required, but if you've tested and have a result, disclosure obligations apply.
• Asbestos — if you know the property contains asbestos and remediation work is being done, you must inform the tenant. There is no general "all rentals must disclose asbestos" rule, but a known issue triggers a duty.
• Weathertightness — if the property has been the subject of a weathertightness claim or has known leaks, disclosure to incoming tenants is good practice and may be required if the issue affects habitability.

What enforcement actually looks like

Most compliance failures don't result in spontaneous prosecution. The pattern is:

1. The tenant raises an issue (usually at the end of a tenancy when there's a bond dispute, or when something has gone wrong like a Healthy Homes failure during winter).
2. The tenant lodges a Tenancy Tribunal claim.
3. The Tribunal hears both sides and makes a decision, including any financial orders.

The Tribunal can issue penalties up to $7,200 for Healthy Homes breaches and up to $4,000 for other RTA breaches like missing smoke alarms or unlodged bond. These add up if multiple breaches are alleged and proven.

Tenancy Services also has a Compliance and Investigations team that can take direct action against landlords with repeat or serious breaches — fines, banning orders, and (in extreme cases) prosecution.

What keel handles automatically

Keel is built around exactly this compliance surface. The product:

• Tracks Healthy Homes Standards status per property and alerts you when documentation is stale
• Generates RTA-aligned tenancy agreements with the compulsory clauses, Healthy Homes Compliance Statement, and insulation statement attached
• Records bond lodgement timestamps so the 23-working-day window is auditable
• Stores smoke alarm install + replacement records per property
• Flags rent-increase eligibility based on the 12-month rule and drafts the 60-day notice for you
• Keeps every tenancy condition report, photo, and document in one place per property

You stay the approver — every notice, every bond decision, every reply to a tenant — but the structure is there so you don't have to reconstruct it from email folders when something escalates.

Try keel free for 30 days

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Sources:

• Tenancy Services — Healthy Homes Standards
• Tenancy Services — Healthy Homes Compliance
• Tenancy Services — Bond Hub
• Tenancy Services — Smoke alarms
• Tenancy Services — Insurance disclosure
• Tenancy Services — Tenancy Tribunal
• Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (legislation.govt.nz)

This guide is general information only, not legal advice. For specific situations, Community Law provides free advice in most NZ regions.