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Refresher on privacy rights for tenants
Privacy for residential tenancies continues to be a hot topic.
Recently a tenant was awarded $1,500 due to her tenancy being terminated in a retaliatory move by her landlord following a privacy breach by a tradesman. During bathroom renovations, the tradesman entered the tenant’s bedroom – reportedly to find out why some ducks were quacking outside the property. After the tenant refused to allow the tradesman to return to the property, the landlord terminated her tenancy. The Tenancy Tribunal ordered the landlord to pay compensation to his tenant as he had failed to provide sufficient instructions about which areas of the house the tradesman could/should not enter.
As a landlord, you must take care to avoid infringing your tenants’ privacy rights – either during the tenancy application process or throughout their tenancy. To help you navigate this area, we outlined some guidance around tenants’ privacy in the Spring 2019 edition of Property Speaking.
Since we published that article, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has re-released its privacy guidelines for landlords and property managers. The guidelines address questions such as:
- When can you ask a tenant for a criminal record check?
- What types of internet searches can you conduct on your tenants?
- What levels of information can you collect during the application process?
The new guidelines can be found here https://privacy.org.nz/news-and-publications/guidance-resources/privacy-act-guidance-for-landlords-and-tenants/