NZ Tenancy Application Form: What to Include (and What to Leave Out)

There is no official New Zealand tenancy application form. Tenancy Services does not publish a standard one and the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 does not prescribe the fields, so the landlord designs the form. That is both freeing and a trap: you can ask anything you like, so it is easy to ask for too much, or to forget the field that would have caught a problem.

Why there is no official form

I self-manage four Auckland properties and have refined my application form by thinking about three things: what I need to make a decision, what I am allowed to ask, and what an applicant will fill in properly.

I ask every enquirer to complete a written application before I offer a viewing. That sounds backward, but it filters the pipeline without effort. Serious applicants complete the form quickly. People who are shopping around, or who would rather not disclose something yet, tend to go quiet.

The Privacy Act line: collect only what you need

Any personal information you collect from an applicant is governed by the Privacy Act. I am not a lawyer and the detail is worth checking on the Privacy Commissioner website, but the principle a small landlord works to is simple:

• Only collect what is reasonably necessary for the purpose, which is assessing this tenancy application. Full passport number, IRD number, full driver licence number: not necessary, so do not ask. Name, employment, rental history and income: necessary.
• Tell the applicant why you are collecting it. A line at the top of the form does this: "This information is collected to assess your tenancy application. It will be kept securely and not shared without your consent."
• Get written consent before you contact referees or run a credit or background check. Build it into the form as a signed declaration.
• Applicants can ask to see what you hold about them, so keep your records tidy.

None of this is heavy. It is common sense applied to a form, and it keeps you out of trouble.

The fields that belong on a good form

Applicant details:

• Full legal name of every adult who will live there
• Date of birth
• Contact email and phone
• Current and previous addresses for at least the last three years, with dates

The address history matters more than people realise. Two previous addresses give you two landlord references to chase. A single address tells you almost nothing.

Current and previous landlord details:

• Name of the landlord or property manager
• Phone or email
• How long they were at the address
• The rent they paid

I ask for the landlord's contact details explicitly, not just "a reference." Applicants sometimes list a friend instead of their actual landlord.

Employment and income:

• Employer name and address
• Employment type (permanent, fixed-term, casual, self-employed, beneficiary)
• Job title and how long they have been there
• Gross weekly income
• For self-employed applicants: approximate annual income and whether they can provide an accountant's letter

Income is not the same as employment. Someone on a benefit, on superannuation, or receiving Working for Families has income. What you are assessing is whether the income is sufficient, stable and verifiable, and those three tests apply whatever the source. The Human Rights Act 1993 makes discrimination on certain grounds unlawful, so assess the money, not where it comes from.

Occupants:

• Names and dates of birth of all adults who will occupy the property
• Number of children and approximate ages

Every adult occupant should end up named on the tenancy agreement.

Pets:

The form should ask whether the applicant has pets and, if so, what kind and how many. You need this for the property, since there is a real difference between a goldfish and a large dog in an apartment. Note the law changed on 1 December 2025: a tenancy agreement can no longer carry a blanket "no pets" clause unless the landlord states reasonable grounds for it, and a tenant can request to keep a pet, which the landlord may approve with reasonable conditions or decline on reasonable grounds. Ask the same questions about smoking, since tobacco and methamphetamine residue is expensive to remediate and many insurance policies exclude meth contamination.

Character references:

Two character references, different from the landlord references, with name, relationship, phone and email. Employer or professional contacts are better than personal friends. I want to be able to call these people.

Reason for moving:

A short free-text field. "Moving for work" is one thing. "Dispute with current landlord" is a prompt for more questions. Most answers are ordinary, the occasional one is useful.

Declaration and consent:

This is the part people skip, and they should not. It should cover:

• The information in this form is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge
• I consent to the landlord contacting the referees named here
• I consent to the landlord obtaining a credit report and background check as part of the assessment
• I understand that false information may result in the application being declined or the tenancy being terminated

The credit-check consent is the legally important line. You cannot run a Centrix or Equifax report without it.

What to leave out

• IRD number. No legitimate reason for a landlord to hold this. Do not ask.
• Passport copy. You need to verify identity, but a passport scan sitting on your laptop is a privacy liability if you are ever breached. Name and date of birth are enough for a credit check.
• Bank account details. Not necessary at the application stage and it feels intrusive, because it is.
• Anything that elicits a protected characteristic. The Human Rights Act 1993 covers grounds such as race, sex, marital and family status, religious belief, disability and age. Questions that draw this out are risky even when that is not your intent. Keep the form on the three things that matter: income, rental history and identity.

The PDF-and-email problem

The traditional flow is to email a PDF, the applicant prints it, fills it in by hand or types into it, and emails it back. Fields get missed, handwriting is illegible, and you are back-and-forthing before you have enough to decide. Across four properties I had a slightly different form for each one, applicants filling out forms fresh for every landlord, and me extracting the same information from different layouts each time. It was friction I had built for myself.

How RentManager handles this

That friction is why RentManager captures applications online instead. An applicant fills in their details once and shares a link, and you receive the same structured profile from everyone, so you are not re-reading a new layout each time. The references they name are held against the application, supporting documents (income, ID checks, references) are stored in one place rather than scattered across your inbox, and you work the applicants from the screening surface rather than a folder of PDFs. It is free for tenants to create a profile. You can see the Applicants surface in the live demo.

The form is the start of the process, not the end. You still verify income documents, call the referees (actually call them), and decide whether to run a credit check. This sits inside the wider workflow covered in our guide to tenant screening in NZ and our piece on checking tenant references. If you are an applicant reading this to know what you will be asked, our rental application tips for tenants covers how to put a strong application together.

A modest form filled in properly beats a comprehensive one skimmed in a rush.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an official NZ tenancy application form?

No. Tenancy Services does not publish one and the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 does not prescribe the fields, so the landlord designs the form. See Tenancy Services' guidance on choosing the right tenant.

What can a landlord legally ask for on a rental application?

What is reasonably necessary to assess the application: identity, rental history, employment and income, and references. Under the Privacy Act you should not collect more than you need, and you must tell the applicant why you are collecting it. Check the Privacy Commissioner website for the detail.

Do I need the applicant's consent to run a credit check?

Yes. Get written consent before you contact referees or run a credit or background check. Build it into the form as a signed declaration.

What should a landlord not ask for?

IRD number, a passport copy, bank account details, and anything that elicits a protected characteristic under the Human Rights Act 1993. Keep the form on income, rental history and identity.