Tenancy Tribunal NZ Contact Number, Email, and Hours
Quick question - are you reading this as a:
Call 0800 TENANCY (0800 836 262) Monday to Friday 8am-5pm. That goes to Tenancy Services, who administer Tribunal applications, bond, and mediation. There is no separate Tribunal phone line. File applications and track cases at tenancyservices.govt.nz. The application fee is $20.44.
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The Tenancy Tribunal is part of the Ministry of Justice, but most of the channels you actually use sit with Tenancy Services (which is part of MBIE). Tenancy Services handles bond, mediation, and Tribunal applications; the Tribunal itself only handles hearings.
Phone
0800 TENANCY (0800 836 262), Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm NZT.
This number gets you through to Tenancy Services. They can:
- Tell you what stage your application is at
- Help you file an application
- Resolve simple bond disputes without a Tribunal hearing
- Refer you to free mediation
- Confirm where and when your hearing is scheduled
What they will not do: give legal advice, comment on the merits of a case in progress, or tell you what an adjudicator is likely to decide.
There is no general public inbox. Use the contact form at tenancy.govt.nz/contact-us for non-urgent queries. Once you have an open application, you can reply directly to the case officer's email.
In person
Tribunal hearings happen at the District Court in each region. You do not visit the District Court for general questions - call the 0800 number first. For the list of regional Tribunal venues and addresses: justice.govt.nz/tribunals/tenancy-tribunal.
Online portal (the fastest channel)
If you have a Tenancy Services account (the one you use for bond lodgement), most things you would phone for can be done in the portal:
- File a Tribunal application: log in -> Tribunal applications -> New application
- Track an existing application
- Request mediation
- Lodge or refund a bond
- View hearing dates
Filing takes 10 to 20 minutes if you have your evidence ready. The application fee is $20.44 per application at time of writing - flat, regardless of the amount in dispute. Cases up to $100,000 in award (raised from $50,000 in the 2024 amendments) can go through the Tribunal; above that you are looking at the District Court.
When to call vs file directly
- Call if you do not know whether your situation needs a Tribunal application at all. The 0800 number can sometimes resolve bond disputes without filing.
- File directly if you already know what you are asking for (specific dollar amount, possession order, termination). The portal is faster than the phone for this.
- Request mediation if there is a dispute but both sides are willing to talk. Free, faster than a hearing, decisions are enforceable. About two thirds of bond and rent-arrears cases settle in mediation.
What to bring when you call
Have these ready before you dial. The 0800 staff will ask:
- Your bond number (if there is one), or the property address and tenant's name
- Whether you are the landlord or the tenant
- A one-sentence summary of the issue ("tenant owes 6 weeks rent", "bond dispute over carpet")
- What you have already tried (direct communication, mediation, formal notices)
For the deeper question
If you are about to file or about to walk into a hearing and you want to know what the process actually looks like from the landlord side, the longer guide is here: Going to the Tenancy Tribunal in NZ: A landlord's first-hand guide.
If you are at the stage of keeping records before anything goes wrong (which is when the records you need at the Tribunal actually get created), RentManager gives you the inspection PDFs, rent ledger, and communication log that hold up at hearings. The free Starter plan covers one property at $9/month.