An investor in a Britomart apartment listed her unit on Airbnb in late 2023. She had owned the unit for four years and had always intended to use it as a short-term rental. Three weeks after the first guests checked out, she received a formal notice from the body corporate: the operational rules, amended two years earlier and lodged with Land Information New Zealand, required owners to register short-stay guests, restricted guest access to shared facilities, and made owners responsible for their guests' rule breaches. She had not been sent the updated rules. She had not attended the meeting. She had no idea the change had been made.
A body corporate can regulate how units and common property are used. It can set rules about noise and nuisance, security and building access, use of shared facilities, rubbish disposal, and — within reason — the number of occupants. What it can't do is prevent an owner from renting out their unit. The Tenancy Tribunal has found that a rule prohibiting short-term letting went beyond the body corporate's powers and interfered with owners' rights under the Act.
Short-term letting is the area where most of the current tension sits — and the honest answer is that the law is still unsettled. Rules that try to ban short-stay letting outright, or impose minimum letting periods, are legally vulnerable: a body corporate's rule-making power covers the management, use and enjoyment of units and common property, and the Tribunal has been unwilling to let that power be used to stop owners from renting. Where bodies corporate are on much firmer ground is regulating the impact of short-stay guests — security, noise, shared facilities, occupant numbers, and requiring owners to take responsibility for their guests' behaviour.
The process for changing rules matters less than most people think — an ordinary resolution at a general meeting, lodged with Land Information New Zealand to take effect. The Britomart owner's problem wasn't that the rules were exotic; it was that she had not been informed of them. Which raises a practical point: when a rule changes, the body corporate should be making a genuine effort to make sure all owners know about it, not just those who attended the meeting.
For owners who rent out their units: under the Residential Tenancies Act, every new tenancy agreement for a residential unit must include an insurance statement disclosing whether the building is insured and, if so, whether the policy covers the tenant's belongings. In practice, the body corporate's principal policy covers the building structure but not contents. Most tenancy agreements for apartments should clarify this — and many don't, which creates a technical compliance issue for the landlord.
There are other things the body corporate can restrict that landlord-owners sometimes find surprising: the number of people who can occupy a unit (within reason), requirements for rubbish disposal and recycling in lettings, rules about access to shared facilities for guests versus owners, and rules about how noise and disturbance from short-term letting are managed. Getting a current copy of the rules before renting out — and making sure your tenants or guests are aware of them — is both a compliance matter and a courtesy to neighbours.
What rules can't restrict: your right to sell, your right to a standard residential tenancy, your right to access and use the common property in the normal way. Rules that try to do these things are overreaching and can be challenged through the Tenancy Tribunal.
For committees looking at short-term letting rules: get legal advice on the specific wording before you put anything to owners. A rule that regulates guest behaviour, security and shared facilities is enforceable. A rule that tries to ban letting outright may not survive a Tribunal challenge — and an unenforceable rule is worse than no rule, because sooner or later someone relies on it. Electronic voting makes it easier to get genuine owner buy-in either way.
Quarter is the new body corporate — transparent, owner-first, and built for the way people actually live together. See how it works at quarter.nz.