Who’s not covered?

If a person is living in a house or flat with the landlord / homeowner, or their family member, they will generally be a boarder and not a tenant (s 5(1)(n) RTA). The property must “principally be used as a place of residence” for the homeowner or landlord (see Tenancy Tribunal Order 4277753, 4280699).

It doesn’t matter if there’s an agreement or advertisement that describes people as “flatmates” or “tenants”. It’s the actual situation that counts.

Here are some things to note:

The RTA only covers landlords and tenants, not flatmates. A flatmate is someone who lives in a rental property with one or more tenants - meaning those people who have signed the tenancy agreement. A flatmate doesn’t have a direct legal relationship with the landlord because they haven’t signed the tenancy agreement.

The rights and responsibilities of a flatmate will depend on the agreement they make with the tenant. Ideally they should sign a ‘flat-sharing agreement’ which sets out the agreed terms in relation to things like whether a bond is required, how bills will be shared, and how much notice has to be given to end the arrangement. A template flat / house sharing agreement is available here.

Flatting arrangements are pretty common amongst students. This is often because some members of the household may be more likely to come and go, or it may be that a group of flatmates nominate a "head tenant" to be on the tenancy agreement, perhaps because the landlord doesn’t want to have to deal with three or four people.

Disputes involving flatmates can’t be taken to the Tenancy Tribunal. If a tenant and flatmate have a dispute that they are not able to resolve by discussing it, they may be able to take the issue to the Disputes Tribunal.

More information about the rights and responsibilities of flatmates is available here.

Transitional and emergency housing is not covered by the RTA, if the housing is funded either by a government department or under the Special Needs Grants Programme. Other transitional and emergency housing providers may be exempt from the RTA, as long as the Government is satisfied that they meet certain standards (s 5(1)(y) RTA). However, the parties can opt in to being covered by the RTA.

Holiday homes that are let for the tenant’s holiday purposes are not covered by the RTA (s 5(1)(m) RTA).

Places like hotels and motels are also not covered if they are intended to provide temporary or transient accommodation (ie, usually less than 28 days at a time). The stay must be subject to an agreement that has been entered into for the purpose of providing temporary or transient accommodation (s 5(1)(k) RTA).

More information about a person’s rights when booking holiday accommodation can be found here.

If a person rents empty land (with or without facilities like electricity and water) and lives in a caravan that is not supplied by the landlord, the RTA doesn’t apply (s 5(1)(t) RTA).

If a person rents a cabin, caravan, tent, or other structure at a camping ground and their stay isn’t intended to be for longer than 50 days at a time, then the RTA doesn’t apply (s 5(1)(ta) RTA ). Similarly, if a person is renting a self-contained caravan or relocatable home (but not a tent) in a camping ground and agrees with the owner that the stay is ‘temporary or transient’, the RTA doesn't apply (s 5(1)(tb) and 5(3) RTA). The person’s rights and obligations will depend on the agreement that was made with the camping ground owner (see Tenancy Tribunal Order 4223311 at [8] and Tenancy Tribunal Order 4216960 at [6]).

Sometimes however, living in someone else's caravan / mobile home may be covered by the RTA:

• If a person lives long-term in a caravan or mobile home that isn’t theirs, on someone else’s land, they are probably a tenant, and the RTA would apply. It doesn’t matter whether or not the local council regulations allow people to live long-term in a caravan/mobile home (see Tenancy Tribunal Order 4216449, 4210474 at [26]).
• If a person lives in the landlord’s caravan or mobile home on the landlord’s property, and the person shares the landlord’s home for cooking, washing etc, then the person will probably be a boarder and not a tenant, so the RTA doesn’t apply (s 5(1)(n) RTA). If however, the sharing of the landlord’s space is minimal, they are probably a tenant and the RTA applies (see Tenancy Tribunal Order 4160997).

See section 5(1) RTA for a full list of living arrangements that aren’t covered by the RTA. Other exclusions include:

• commercial tenancies (ie, renting property for business purposes)
• hospitals, retirement villages and other care institutions for the sick, aged and disabled
• prisons, police cells, barracks and lock-ups
• Armed Forces barracks
• employee hostels
• some tertiary student accommodation (see s 5(1)(h) and 5B RTA)
• temporary accommodation to members of a club
• where the tenant is buying the property from the landlord
• where there is a lease-back arrangement
• where the tenancy exists because the tenant own shares in the company that owns the premises
• where the purpose of the tenancy is to allow the tenant to run an accommodation business or supply accommodation to employees, and not to live there themselves.