Paying rent

When you move in, you start paying one or two weeks’ rent in advance. Two weeks is the most the landlord can ask you for.

This pays the landlord for the week(s) to come. So, if you have paid two weeks’ rent you do not have to pay again until that money is used up – that means two weeks (14 days) later.

You pay again when the rent you have paid is used up.

How do I pay rent?

It is up to the tenant and the landlord to agree how rent will be paid and to write this into the tenancy agreement. Rent may be paid by cash or cheque, or by automatic payment.

If you pay in cash, the landlord must give you receipts. (If you are using automatic payments or a non-negotiable personal cheque, the bank records act as receipts.) Keep them somewhere safe.

The landlord must keep rent records – you can ask for a copy any time. It’s a good idea to keep your own rent records as well, and make sure you never owe rent. You can use this rent summary form to track your rent payments during a tenancy.

What can I do if I can’t pay my rent?

Talk to the landlord and see if you can sort something out. Talk to the Department of Building and Housing about what you can do.

What can the landlord do if I don’t or can’t catch up?

 If things can’t be sorted out, then the landlord can:

• give you a letter giving you 10 working days to pay
• apply to the Tenancy Tribunal for an order that you pay what you owe
• apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to end your tenancy (the landlord can’t physically throw you out, but a Court bailiff may evict you by order of the Tenancy Tribunal).

Am I paying the right rent?

If you think your rent is substantially more than for other places like yours, you can ask the Tenancy Tribunal to decide if the rent should be changed (talk to your landlord or the Department of Building and Housing about this first). The Tribunal may make an order to set the rent, if the rent the landlord wants substantially exceeds the market rent. The landlord would not be able to increase the rent again for a period decided by the Tribunal (usually six months).

You can check out the latest market rents here.