Do I Have to Tell My Tenant About My Landlord Insurance? (NZ Disclosure Rules)

Yes. Since the requirement was introduced into the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, landlords must disclose the insurance details for a rental property to the tenant - including, specifically, the excess amount - as part of the tenancy agreement. This obligation was reinforced and clarified as part of the wider Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2024 reforms, and a lot of self-managing landlords still have not updated their process for it.

1. What actually has to be disclosed

• Whether the property is insured at all
• If it is insured, the amount of the excess relevant to the tenant's liability for damage to the premises
• That a copy of the policy is available to the tenant on request (unless you have already given them a copy)

This has to be given to the tenant in writing, and it is a required part of the tenancy agreement itself under section 13A of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 - not something retrofitted in after a claim comes up. Tenancy Services sets out the exact wording requirements on its required statements for tenancy agreements page, alongside the separate insulation and Healthy Homes statements. The logic behind the rule: if a tenant accidentally causes damage, the excess is often what they end up being asked to cover, so they should know the number upfront, not find out after the fact.

If the information changes later, for example you switch insurer or the excess goes up at renewal, the landlord must give the tenant the correct information in writing within a reasonable time of becoming aware of the change.

2. Where landlords get caught out

• Not knowing their own excess. Plenty of landlords have not looked at their policy since they took it out and genuinely do not know the excess figure without digging up the policy document.
• Verbal disclosure only. Telling the tenant "yeah we're insured" at the viewing is not the same as the written disclosure the Act requires as part of the tenancy agreement.
• Forgetting to update it at renewal. Insurance excess, and even the insurer, can change year to year - a disclosure made two tenancies ago is not current, and leaving it stale is itself a breach.
• Multi-property landlords losing track of which policy covers which address, especially when properties are insured under different policies or providers.

3. How RentManager handles it

Each property has its own insurance record - insurer, excess amount, and renewal date - stored against the property, not scattered across email or a filing cabinet.

• Per-property policy tracking. Provider, excess, and renewal date live on the property record alongside the rest of its details.
• Feeds the agreement automatically. When you generate a tenancy agreement through RentManager, the current insurance disclosure is pulled straight from the property record into the disclosure clause - no separate document to remember.
• Renewal visibility. Because the expiry date is tracked, you are not disclosing stale information a year after the policy changed.

If you are still choosing a policy rather than disclosing an existing one, see our guide on choosing landlord insurance for what is typically covered, what is often excluded, and the gaps that catch NZ property owners out.

RentManager tracks insurance disclosure alongside the rest of your compliance record, built for NZ landlords managing a small portfolio without paying PM fees. Try it free for your first property.

4. Quick answers

Do I have to disclose insurance if the property is not insured? Yes. The disclosure obligation covers the fact that it is not insured too, not just the details when it is.

Does this apply to existing tenancies, or only new ones? The disclosure is required as part of the tenancy agreement for tenancies entered into on or after the requirement took effect. If an existing tenancy agreement was entered into before then and the tenant asks for the information, the landlord must provide it in writing within a reasonable time of the request.

What if my excess changes partway through a tenancy? The Act requires you to give the tenant the correct information in writing within a reasonable time after you become aware of the change, so update the disclosure as soon as your policy changes, not just at the next renewal.

Is this the same as Healthy Homes disclosure? No. Healthy Homes compliance statements and insurance disclosure are separate obligations under different parts of the Act, though both are things RentManager tracks per property. See our property inspection guide for how Healthy Homes checks fit into routine inspections.

Try it in the demo: see the insurance disclosure clause populate automatically when generating a tenancy agreement.