Potential removal of landlords/managers rights to perform credit checks on prospective tenants
Potential removal of landlords/managers rights to perform credit checks on prospective tenants - postion clarified
To all Property Investor Association members
You may have heard recently that the Privacy Commissioner was seeking to stop Landlords’ from obtaining credit checks on prospective Tenants’ as well as restricting Tribunal Orders from appearing on credit checks. Unfortunately the wording of the proposal was ambiguous.
The NZPIF have a long held relationship with the Privacy Commission and have contacted them directly to clarify the situation.
The commissioner (A rental property owner herself) has confirmed that nothing will change regarding Landlords’ ability to obtain credit checks.
The only restriction applying to Landlords’ is that positive information will now be made available to credit reporting agencies, however they will not be able to pass this positive information onto Landlords’. This is not seen to be a problem as we have not had access to this information previously anyway and it is not greatly applicable to our needs.
Concern over not obtaining Tenancy Tribunal information has also been clarified. Tribunal orders will still appear on credit checks, however they are also available freely through Government websites. The NZPIF lobbied for many years to make Tribunal orders publically available and would be extremely concerned if this was taken away.
Many PIA members are concerned by the proposed changes and would appreciate having their concerns put aside as quickly as possible.
Kind regards
Martin Evans
President
New Zealand Property Investors Federation
Published: August 2010
