Have Covid-19 restrictions changed your plans for moving? A recent tenancy tribunal hearing has ruled that this won't change your obligations under a residential tenancy agreement.
The current day and age see Covid-19 impacting almost every aspect of our lives. Over the course of the last few years, the government has implemented periods of time for policies of rent freezes and stopped almost all evictions in hopes of protecting renters. However, the tenancy tribunal has ruled in the last month that Covid-19 pandemic restrictions cannot cancel a tenancy agreement.
A tenancy agreement is a legally binding contract, and once the elements of the contract have been met, the conditions of the agreement need to be fulfilled by all contributing parties. The tenancy tribunal says “Covid-19 does not affect this.”
In a decision published last month, the tenancy tribunal dismissed a claim from two tenants trying to get their bond and a week’s rent back from a new landlord, for a property they never moved into. Auckland's change to alert level 4 restricted their ability to accommodate the new property in September, and the couple decided it was safer to stay in Queenstown rather than move.
Their landlord offered to extend the start date of the lease by a month, but the couple did not want to proceed at all. The tribunal decided that the landlord's offer to delay the beginning of the tenancy by a month was reasonable given the uncertainty of Covid arrangements at the time. The Tribunal, therefore, agreed to consider the extended date as the beginning of the tenancy.
But the couple was still required to pay the difference in rent while the property was vacant.
The tribunal held that all the elements required to form a contract had been met. Despite Housing Minister Megan Woods introducing rent freezes and stopping nearly all evictions, the tenancy tribunal was not prepared to extend these courtesies further. The tribunal stated that the Covid-19 restrictions did not mean that contracts were set aside in law.
If your residential tenancy agreement has been impacted by Covid-19 lockdowns, and you need advice moving forward in an agreement process, the conveyancing team at Godfreys Law can help. Call us on 03 366 7469 to get in touch.
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