Examples of decreasing the rent

A housing provider must always issue notice to a tenant of a change to the rent charged. However, in the case of a decrease to the amount of rent charged, there is no notice period applied.

The housing provider must apply the decrease to the rent from the earliest rent effective date following the notification received.

Note that these examples assume that the housing provider will send written notice to change the rent to their tenants by post within 2 days of receiving notification from MSD, however this may not always be the case.

Below are examples of how the notice for a decrease works.

Mary's hours of work decreased on 2 December 2022 and she notified MSD on 3 December 2022. The new rate of Income Related Rent is activated because the assessable income has reduced.

Mary is paying rent to Kāinga Ora weekly on a Thursday (her rent charge date). The new rent takes effect from the next rent period after the housing provider receives the notification from MSD.

Stewart calls MSD as he was made redundant on 12 May 2023. Stewart received two weeks of holiday pay. His partner continues to work and the couple is not eligible for benefit.

The new rate of Income Related Rent can only be activated once the assessable income has reduced, and therefore the date to use as the change in circumstance is 26 May 2023.

Stewart is paying rent to Kāinga Ora weekly on a Wednesday (his rent charge date). The new rent takes effect from the next rent period after the housing provider receives the notification from MSD.

Michelle voluntarily left her job on 14 December 2022.

MSD determines Michelle has deprived herself of the income from employment by voluntarily leaving without a good reason and the income she would have otherwise earned is included as assessable income for a further 13 weeks.

After 13 weeks, the new rate of Income Related Rent is activated because the assessable income has reduced.

Michelle is paying rent to Kāinga Ora weekly on a Thursday (her rent charge date). The new rent takes effect from the next rent period after the housing provider receives the notification from MSD.