Single statute for tenancy wanted

Press, 5 February 1987, Page 3

Single statute for tenancy wanted

Wellington reporter

The consolidation of all law on commercial and agricultural tenancies into a single statute has been recommended by the Property Law and Equity Reform Committee.

Its final report on legislation relating to landlord and tenant has been released by the Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer. He said the report dealt

only with commercial and agricultural tenancies and not with rental housing laws.

The report recommended repealing . statutory provisions that were obsolete or inappropriate, and the redrafting in a more modem form of other statute law that had become outdated.

Law relating to nonresidential tenancies was largely a matter of con-

tract between the parties, and the law ought to allow sufficient freedom for the parties to make their own arrangements. New legislation ought to provide a framework within which the parties to non-residential tenancies could function by setting out clearly the basic rules governing landlord and tenant that had developed over a period, the report said.