Boarding Houses and Renting a Room: Your Rights
Three people can pay to live in the same house and have three completely different sets of legal rights. One might be a tenant with the full protection of the Residential Tenancies Act. One might be a boarding house tenant, protected but under a different set of rules. The third might be a flatmate with almost no statutory protection at all.
Which one you are is not decided by what the arrangement is called. It is decided by who you have the agreement with, and that single question determines whether you can go to the Tenancy Tribunal when something goes wrong.
The three things to remember
A flatmate of the tenant is generally outside the Residential Tenancies Act. A boarding house tenancy is covered, with its own rules including 48 hours notice to end it. And for the person receiving the money, the $245 weekly standard cost per boarder can make the income tax free.
If your agreement is with the landlord, you are likely a tenant. If your agreement is with the tenant, you are likely a flatmate, and the Residential Tenancies Act largely does not apply to you. That means no Tenancy Tribunal, no bond lodgement protection, and no statutory notice periods. Flatmates who assume otherwise discover it at the worst possible moment.
Sorting out which you are
| Arrangement | Covered by the Act? |
|---|---|
| You signed a tenancy agreement with the landlord or their agent | Yes, as a tenant |
| You pay the tenant, who pays the landlord | Generally no, you are a flatmate |
| You live in premises with six or more tenants, occupied or intended to be occupied for 28 days or more | Yes, as a boarding house tenant |
| You board with a family and pay for meals and services as well as the room | Generally no, boarding is treated differently again |
The boarding house definition is worth reading carefully rather than assuming. It turns on the number of tenants and the intended length of stay, not on whether the building calls itself a boarding house.
Boarding house tenancies
Where the Act does apply as a boarding house tenancy, the rules are adapted to the reality that people move in and out quickly and share facilities.
Bond still applies and still has to be lodged. The tenancy bond calculator works out the maximum a landlord may take, and the tenancy rights and bond guide covers the lodgement rules that apply either way.
Flatmates: the unprotected middle
Most people sharing a house in New Zealand are flatmates rather than tenants, and the law leaves them largely to their own arrangements. There is no statutory notice period, no bond protection through Tenancy Services, and no Tribunal to go to. A dispute between flatmates is a contract dispute, and the venue is the Disputes Tribunal rather than the Tenancy Tribunal.
That makes a written flatmate agreement more important, not less, precisely because nothing fills the gaps if you do not write them down. Cover the rent share, the bond, notice, bills, and what happens when one person leaves mid-lease.
If your name is on the tenancy agreement and your flatmates' names are not, you owe the landlord the whole rent. Not your share, all of it. A flatmate who leaves without notice leaves you covering their portion, and the landlord is entitled to look only to you. Splitting the rent fairly is one question; who is liable for it is a different one. The flatmate rent split calculator handles the first.
The tax side: standard costs
If you take in a boarder or a home-stay student, that money is income. But Inland Revenue runs a standard-cost method that recognises what it costs to house and feed someone, and for most households it means no tax is payable at all.
For the 2025 to 2026 income year the weekly standard cost is $245 per boarder, for up to four boarders. If your total standard costs equal or exceed the boarding income for the year, the income is not taxable and there is nothing to declare.
Two features of the method matter. It is capped at four boarders, so a fifth changes the calculation entirely. And there are additional annual standard costs for housing and transport that can be claimed on top of the weekly figure, which is why most ordinary arrangements end up with nothing taxable.
The boarder and flatmate income calculator works out where you sit. Inland Revenue also publishes its own calculator and the IR1255 worksheet.
The standard-cost method is for boarders and home-stay students, meaning people you provide services to such as meals. Someone who simply pays a share of the rent and buys their own food is a flatmate, and a genuine cost-sharing arrangement between flatmates is generally not income at all. Applying the boarder method to a flatmate arrangement, or declaring flatmate contributions as income, are both common and both wrong.
What changes when money is involved
Taking in a boarder can affect more than your tax return, and the flow-on effects are easy to miss.
| What to check | Why |
|---|---|
| Your mortgage | Some lenders want to know about additional occupants. Boarder income can also help a serviceability assessment, so it can cut both ways. |
| Your house insurance | Insurers distinguish between the family living there and paying occupants. A quick call establishes whether the policy still responds. |
| Benefits and entitlements | Where income is taxable it counts. Where it is not, it generally does not, but the accommodation supplement in particular looks at your housing costs and who shares them. |
| Your body corporate or landlord | If you rent, taking in a boarder may need the landlord's consent. If you own an apartment, the body corporate rules may have something to say. |
Ending the arrangement
How much notice is required depends entirely on which category you established at the start. A boarding house tenant can give 48 hours. A standard tenancy has its own longer notice periods. A flatmate has whatever the flatmate agreement says, and if there is no agreement, whatever is reasonable, which is exactly the kind of question nobody wants to argue about.
The cheapest hour anyone spends on a shared house is the one at the beginning, agreeing in writing who pays what, how much notice applies, how the bond is handled, and what happens when someone leaves. Tenancy Services publishes templates, and even an informal written agreement between flatmates is worth far more than a good memory of a conversation.
What this guide does not cover
Short-stay accommodation such as Airbnb is a different subject with its own tax and consent questions. Student hostels and halls of residence operate under their own arrangements. Retirement villages and rest homes are governed separately. Social housing tenancies have additional rules. This is general information rather than legal advice, and a dispute that is heading anywhere serious is worth taking to Tenancy Services or a Community Law centre early.
Test Your Knowledge
Ten questions on rooms, boarders and who is actually protected.
Sources: Tenancy Services on boarding house tenancies and on flatmates, the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, and Inland Revenue on the standard-cost method for boarders and home-stay students, weekly standard cost $245 for the 2025 to 2026 income year. Standard costs are reset annually; check the current figure before relying on it.
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