What to do when a tenant stops paying rent in NZ

When the rent stops

Few things are as unsettling for a landlord as realising your tenant has stopped paying rent. Whether it comes out of the blue or follows a pattern of late payments, you need to act promptly — but you also need to act lawfully. The Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (RTA) sets out a clear process, and deviating from it will only make things worse.

This guide walks through what to do from the moment you realise rent has been missed, all the way through to recovery and, if necessary, termination.

Step 1: Confirm the arrears

Before you do anything else, confirm that the rent is genuinely unpaid. Check your bank account or payment records carefully. Sometimes payments are delayed by weekends, public holidays, or banking processing times. A payment initiated on Friday may not appear until Monday or Tuesday.

If you're manually checking bank statements, it's easy to miss a payment or mistake one tenant's payment for another — particularly if you own multiple properties. Automated rent tracking through a tool like keel removes this guesswork by matching incoming payments to expected rent and alerting you when something is overdue.

Once you've confirmed the payment is genuinely missing, note the date the rent was due and the amount outstanding.

Step 2: Make contact early

Your first step should always be a polite, direct message. Many missed payments have a simple explanation — a forgotten automatic payment, an expired bank card, a temporary cash flow issue. A brief message often resolves things immediately, and if the matter later reaches the Tenancy Tribunal, it demonstrates you acted reasonably.

Keep a record of this communication. A text message or email is ideal because it's automatically timestamped.

Step 3: Issue a 14-day notice to remedy

If the tenant doesn't pay after your initial contact, or if they are unresponsive, the next step is to issue a formal 14-day notice to remedy under section 56 of the RTA.

This notice must:

• Be in writing
• State the amount of rent owing
• Specify the period the arrears relate to
• Give the tenant at least 14 days to pay the outstanding amount
• State that if the arrears are not paid within 14 days, you may apply to the Tenancy Tribunal for termination of the tenancy

Tenancy Services provides a standard form (Notice to Remedy) that meets all the legal requirements. Use it — drafting your own version risks missing a required element, which could invalidate the notice.

Serve the notice in accordance with the RTA's service provisions. Acceptable methods include delivering it personally, posting it to the tenant's address, or leaving it in the tenant's mailbox. Keep proof of service (a photo of the notice in the mailbox, a delivery receipt, or a witness statement).

Step 4: Wait the 14 days

Once you've issued the notice, you must wait the full 14 days. There is no shortcut. During this period, the tenant has the legal right to pay the arrears in full and resolve the breach. If they pay, the notice is satisfied and the tenancy continues.

This waiting period can be frustrating, especially when you're confident the tenant has no intention of paying. But skipping it — or acting before the 14 days have elapsed — will undermine any subsequent application to the Tenancy Tribunal.

Use this time to organise your documentation: the tenancy agreement, rent records showing all payments (and the gap), copies of your communication with the tenant, and the 14-day notice itself.

Step 5: Apply to the Tenancy Tribunal

If the 14-day period expires and the rent remains unpaid, you can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal. File your application online through the Tenancy Services website. The current fee is $20.44 for an online application.

In your application, you can seek:

• An order for payment of the arrears. The Tribunal can order the tenant to pay the outstanding rent.
• Termination of the tenancy. If the breach is serious enough — and unpaid rent almost always is — the Tribunal can end the tenancy.
• Possession of the property. The Tribunal can set a date by which the tenant must vacate.
• Costs. You may be able to recover the application fee and other reasonable costs.

The Tribunal will schedule a hearing, typically within two to four weeks. Both you and the tenant will be notified and given the opportunity to attend.

Step 6: If the tenant doesn't leave

If the Tribunal orders the tenant to vacate and they don't, you can apply for a possession order. If they still refuse, the order can be enforced through the District Court, and a bailiff can be authorised to remove the tenant. This is the only lawful process for regaining possession — you cannot change the locks, remove belongings, or cut off utilities.

Recovering the money

A Tribunal order for payment is enforceable, but collecting can be challenging. Your options include filing the order in the District Court (which enables attachment orders against wages or bank accounts), claiming against the bond at the end of the tenancy, or engaging a debt collection agency as a last resort. Significant arrears are often difficult to fully recover — which is why early action matters so much.

The repeat offender: section 56A

Under section 56A of the RTA, if you have issued three 14-day notices for rent arrears within any 90-day period — even if the tenant paid each time — you can apply directly to the Tenancy Tribunal for termination. The pattern of repeated arrears is itself a sufficient ground.

Prevention is better than enforcement

The best approach to rent arrears is not to have them. While you can't eliminate the risk entirely, you can reduce it significantly:

• Screen tenants thoroughly. Check references, verify employment, and run credit checks where appropriate.
• Set rent at a sustainable level. A tenant who is stretched to their limit is more likely to fall behind.
• Use automatic payments. Encourage tenants to set up an automatic payment from their bank account on the day rent is due.
• Monitor payments closely. Know immediately when a payment is missed, not days or weeks later. If you use keel, overdue rent is flagged automatically so you can act on day one rather than discovering the problem at the end of the month.

Final thoughts

Having a tenant stop paying rent is stressful, but the process for dealing with it is well-established. Follow the RTA, communicate early, issue proper notices, and use the Tenancy Tribunal when you need to. Keep meticulous records, stay calm, and resist the temptation to take matters into your own hands.

The law protects both parties. Working within it — even when it feels slow — is always the smartest path forward.