Too many tenants next door?
Question from Lisa updated on 9th April 2014:
The property next door to my rental has been re-let. It's a three-bedroom home. There are now four adults and a child in it with another two adults and a child in the garage. The garage is seperate to the house, it's 30-years old, unlined and uninsulated with no water facilities. Do they need resource consent to change the purpose of this garage into a dwelling? Is that too many people living on the property for one toilet? Do they need to convert the garage to make it fit for living in before they can rent it out as a living space? There is also limited parking and we share a driveway with them, so the extra coming and going of cars is disturbing my tenants along with the noise from the people living in the garage. I have spoken to the property manager and she has served them a letter. But I want to know if this is even legal.
Our expert Juliet Robinson responded:
The tenants are required to have consideration for neighbours and may not cause any interference “with the reasonable peace, comfort, or privacy of any other person residing in the neighbourhood”. The property manager has the power to follow up on this responsibility. It appears that the property manager is doing that. I suggest that you keep in touch with the property manager and see if they can solve these “neighbour” issues with their tenants.
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