About boarding houses

A boarding house is a property where six or more people have individual tenancies for their own room or sleeping area, but share some common facilities.
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Characteristics of a boarding house tenancy

A "boarding house" is a specific type of tenancy which is intended for six or more people to live in. Each tenant has an individual tenancy agreement with the landlord and is granted exclusive rights to occupy a particular room or sleeping space in the boarding house, as well as having the right to the shared use of the boarding house facilities (eg, kitchen, bathrooms).

The tenants may or may not know each other and the boarding house doesn’t necessarily need to have six or more rooms - the rooms can be shared.

For the tenancy to be a boarding house tenancy, the tenant must intend to stay (and actually stay) in the boarding house for 28 days or more.

In summary, a boarding house is:

  • residential premises
  • containing one or more boarding rooms
  • along with shared facilities such as kitchens and bathrooms
  • that is occupied, or intended by the landlord to be occupied, by at least six tenants at any one time.

(See s 66B RTA)

Quick tip

A rental property that has these features, but fewer than six tenants, is likely to be a room-by-room tenancy. 

The Tenancy Tribunal has clarified that part of a hotel, motel or backpackers-style premises can be a boarding house that is subject to the RTA, if they have long-term residents who are allocated exclusive use of their sleeping quarters (Tenancy Tribunal Order 4238374 at paragraph 12).

Guidance from the High Court

The High Court has acknowledged that deciding whether a place is a boarding house can be tricky at times (Karmarkar v Pandem and Others [2018] NZHC 693). They set out the following questions. If the answer to all of them is 'yes', then it’s very likely that it is a boarding house.

  • Does the house contain one or more bedrooms along with facilities for communal use by the tenants?
  • Is the house occupied or intended to be occupied by 6 or more tenants?
  • Is the tenancy intended to, or does in fact, last for 28 days or more?
  • Are tenants granted exclusive rights to occupy particular bedrooms, whether that occupancy is for single or shared use?
  • Does the right to occupy a particular bedroom derive from the tenancy agreement between the individual tenant and the landlord rather than from a collective decision of the tenants?

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