Moving Out Of Apartment Letter Template for New Zealand

For a periodic tenancy a tenant gives 21 days' written notice, the position restored by the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2024 with effect from 30 January 2025. A fixed-term tenancy works differently: notice that you do not wish to continue must be given between 90 and 21 days before the end date, or the tenancy carries on as a periodic one. That window applies to fixed terms longer than 90 days, since a shorter one simply ends on its expiry date. Count from when the notice is received, put the vacating date in the letter itself, and keep proof of sending, because a disputed date turns on that evidence.

Notice from one tenant does not by itself end a tenancy held jointly. The usual routes are for all tenants to give notice together, or for the departing tenant to seek the landlord's agreement to a replacement, since joint tenants are each liable for the whole of the rent rather than for a share of it. If you leave without either happening, the landlord can look to you for rent the others do not pay. Get any substitution recorded in writing, and settle the bond position at the same time, because the refund needs the signatures of the tenants the bond was lodged under.

Bond money is held by Tenancy Services rather than by the landlord, and it is released once a refund form signed by the landlord and the tenants is received. Where you cannot agree on deductions, either side can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal for a decision, and the money stays held until that is resolved. Take dated photographs on the day you hand back the keys and give a forwarding address in your letter, since most disputes turn on the state of the property and on being contactable afterwards. Check that the names on the refund form match those the bond was lodged under, or the release stalls.

The standard is reasonably clean and tidy, with fair wear and tear from ordinary use not being your responsibility. Comparing the property against the condition report taken at the start of the tenancy is the practical way to settle what still needs attention, and it is the document the Tribunal will look at as well. Work through the things most often argued about: rubbish left behind, the oven and range hood, carpets, the garden, and anything on the chattels list that has gone missing. Faded paint and worn carpet from normal use sit on the landlord's side of the line, while a stain or a burn does not.

Boarding house tenancies sit under a separate set of rules within the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, with their own notice periods rather than the 21 days for a periodic tenancy. Someone sharing with the owner may fall outside the Act altogether, in which case the arrangement rests on what was agreed between you and there is no statutory notice period to fall back on. Work out which situation you are in before writing, because a letter drafted on the wrong assumption can leave you liable for rent you had not expected. What you signed, and whether the owner lives on the premises, are the first things to check.