A new government means changes ahead for tenants and landlords.

The National-led coalition has promised a number of changes that would affect how tenancies operate.

While investors are happy, tenants’ representatives are unimpressed.

Here is what is on the cards.

The return of 90-day ‘no-cause evictions’

A law change in 2020 meant landlords lost the ability to end a tenancy without giving a reason, provided they gave 90 days’ notice.

The Government plans to reinstate this.

This means that landlords will once again be able to tell their tenants to shift out, without telling them why, provided they give enough notice.

Auckland Property Investors Association general manager Sarina Gibbon points to a survey in 2019 by the NZ Property Investors Federation, which showed only three per cent of tenants received a 90-day notice each year.

She says it's largely an “insurance policy” for landlords.

“You don’t get into a tenancy relationship thinking about terminating it. Like you don't buy insurance for your car expecting to get into an accident. It’s peace of mind insurance for landlords that if they take a punt on a tenant, if something goes wrong, at the very worst it’s 90 days to move on. It’s more of a psychological benefit.”

Renters United spokesperson Geordie Rogers says it will have been better to have a “grown-up discussion” about why landlords need to kick people out without a reason.

”Unfortunately, we’re being told we have to trust landlords, that they always do the right thing, that the ability to kick tenants out at any moment is in any way going to be good for renters.

”That’s ultimately the thing most people in our community are concerned with. Even people who are paying their rent on time, not being annoying to the landlord at all, taking good care of the property but have had experience with no-cause evictions where they’ve been discriminated against and given notice when seemingly nothing has gone wrong.”

He says if landlords are embarrassed to say they are selling a house it shows how much people think they should be doing more to uphold their moral obligations.

Reduction in notice periods

The Government will reduce tenants’ required notice period for the end of a periodic tenancy from 28 days to 21, and will reduce the amount of time that landlords have to give if they want to sell, do renovations, redevelop or move in to a property from 90 days to 42.

Gibbon says this is a welcome move.

She says some tenants are getting into situations where they have to pay double rent because they could not align the start date of a new tenancy with the end of the previous one.

“I do think it’s worth reminding people that the law says you have to give 28 days notice but you can always give longer and, if you talk to your landlord, we’ve seen loads of instances where both parties agree to a shorter notice period.”

Pet bonds

Pet owners have the Act Party to thank for his one – it wants landlords to be able to ask for extra rent to cover potential damage to a rental property from an animal.

At the moment, landlords cannot charge more than four weeks’ rent as a bond.

Renters United asks how much damage a pet can do.

Gibbon says more detail is needed about how much a bond could be, what it's going to be used for and whether it would only apply to a named pet.

“How are we going to deal with situations with multiple pets? There are lots of moving parts still to be understood but if it means more landlords are willing to give a chance to tenants with pets, I think it’s fantastic.

”More of us are having fewer children and more pets. We see when rental agencies do their studies around tenants with pets, we acknolwedge that tenants with pets tend to stay longer and tend to be more stable tenancies.”

Rogers says a pet bond is an unnecessary move.

“What we’ve seen is the Tenancy Tribunal hasn’t decided whether banning pets from a property is technically contracting out of the act or not.

”We’ve seen rulings go both ways... what I find most interesting is that it’s unlikely that a pet is going to do more than four weeks' rent worth of damage to a property or going to do more damage to a property than a landlord's insurance would allow for.

”It is very much one of those things where in our eyes it was already covered under the legislation. For a governmentt that wants to get back to basics, deliver on core things, it's bringing in legisltaiton that isn’t really solving a problem people are having.

” Whether this will be an adequate solution is yet to be decided by renters but perhaps already decided by investors.”

Mortgage interest deductibility

Investors will regain their ability to deduct home loan interest costs from their rental income for tax purposes.

Some investors have suggested this could limit future rent hikes but Rogers says it's unlikely any relief will be passed on to tenants.

Studies have shown that wage growth tends to be a larger factor driving rent increases.

Gibbon says this is the game-changer for investors because everyone has to account for tax.

“This is going to move the needle the most in terms of willingness to hold on to a rental or willingness to acquire more.”

Rogers says it should be noted that investors who bought new properties and added to the housing stock have never lost their ability to deduct interest costs.

But he says few had been willing to do this as “their bit” for the housing crisis and instead had “hunkered down and complained”.

Bright-line test returned to two years

The previous Government pushed out the amount of time that investors had to hold on to an existing property to avoid being charged tax on any capital gains, to 10 years.

The Government has promised to pull this back to the original two years.

There have been suggestions this could lead to more properties being sold. Gibbon says it would be a welcome change for investors, although more at the margins than interest deductibility.

-Susan Edmonds/Stuff.