Hawke's Bay Property Investors' Association

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17-11-2014

New initiatives to improve tenancy services

Changes to the delivery of key tenancy services are set to streamline and speed up processes for landlords and tenants, Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith announced today

“A new FastTrack Resolution service will be available from today to all landlords and tenants to help resolve rent arrears disputes in a faster and more efficient way. A new online system for Tenancy Tribunal applications is also up and running from today, which will reduce processing times significantly,” Dr Smith says.

“FastTrack Resolution means that landlords and tenants who have made a substantial agreement about the repayment of debt will be able to have their agreement formalised by a confirmation conversation, rather than a full mediation. Now a process that could previously take up to 12 days can be completed in as little as 48 hours.

“This will hugely reduce the time it takes to resolve the rent arrears disputes that make up 76 per cent of the 43,000 applications received by the Tenancy Tribunal each year.”

FastTrack Resolution was launched in February this year by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and since then it has been progressively rolled out to high volume Tenancy Tribunal users, including large property management companies and Territorial Local Authority (TLA) housing providers.

“This successful pilot scheme showed that FastTrack Resolution freed up staff to focus on more complex mediations, in turn leading to shorter customer waiting times and better tenancy relationships,” Dr Smith says.

“The new FastTrack Resolution system is part of the Government’s practical improvements in tenancy services. The next priority for the Government will be in upgrading the tenancy bond system to an online service.”

Further information on the new initiatives is available at: www.tenancy.govt.nz.

Tags: tenancy tribunal