Tenancy Services in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is making it easier for landlords and tenants to manage their rental bonds through a new online service.

“Tenancy Services hold rental bonds worth around $900 million in the Residential Tenancies Trust Account. We are proud to be kaitiaki [guardians] of New Zealand’s bond service, and excited to be launching a modernised, digital service to make it quicker and easier for tenants and landlords to manage bonds,” says Kat Watson, head of Tenancy Services.

“The first release of online services enables online bond lodgements and bond top ups. Customers can now use online forms to lodge bonds which increases their visibility of the bond process.”

Property management companies can now connect directly to Tenancy Services using a business-to-business online software application (called an ‘API’). This streamlines the bond lodgement process for property managers, making it faster to process bonds, especially for larger companies and provides ongoing visibility of these records.

“The ‘digital first’ online approach for bond lodgement is part of a modernisation project to develop new ways to deliver tenancy bond services, led by MBIE and supported by the Government and housing agencies across New Zealand.

“The new online service is a refreshing and welcome change from the clunky and heavily manual process with paper-based bond lodgement forms.

“The next release is due in early 2025 with new services continuing to be added through the year.“

More information is on our Tenancy Services website: Modernising our Tenancy Bond Service » Tenancy Services.