The 3-strikes rule for NZ rent arrears explained

The 3-strikes rule lets a NZ landlord apply to end a periodic tenancy under section 55(1)(aa) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 once rent has gone unpaid for at least 5 working days, on 3 separate occasions, within a rolling 90 calendar days. Paying off one occasion before the next happens does not erase the strike. Miscounting that alone is enough to unravel an application.

This guide covers exactly what counts as an occasion, what each of the three notices must say, a worked example across an actual 90-day window, and the mistakes that trip landlords up most often.

What the 3-strikes rule is

Section 55(1)(aa) was introduced through the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2020 and took effect on 11 February 2021. Per Tenancy Services, it was brought in alongside the removal of the 90-day no-cause termination notice for periodic tenancies. During consultation with the property management sector, the government found that one reason landlords used the 90-day no-cause notice was to deal with tenants who kept paying rent late in smaller amounts, never quite reaching 21 days in arrears but never quite on time either. The 3-strikes rule exists to give landlords a way to act on that pattern without a no-cause notice.

It only applies to periodic tenancies. It sits alongside, not instead of, the 14-day notice to remedy and the 21-day arrears pathway. A landlord can use whichever fits the situation.

What counts as one occasion

An occasion happens when rent falls due and remains unpaid for at least 5 working days after the due date. Tenancy Services gives the example of rent due on a particular date: if it's still unpaid 5 working days later, that's one occasion, and the landlord can issue a notice of overdue rent for it.

Each occasion is tied to its own due date. A second occasion is triggered the next time rent falls due and is again unpaid for 5 or more working days, regardless of whether the rent from the first occasion has since been paid. The three occasions don't need to be consecutive rent cycles either. What matters is that all three fall within a rolling 90 calendar days of each other.

Why a paid-off arrears doesn't erase a strike

This is the part landlords get wrong most often. It feels intuitive that once a tenant catches up, the slate is clean. It isn't. Per Tenancy Services' own guidance, a second occasion can be served "regardless of whether the rent due under the first notice has been paid." The occasion is a historical fact once it happens; paying the arrears afterwards doesn't undo that it occurred.

In practice, this means a tenant who pays late every few weeks, always eventually catching up, can still rack up three strikes inside a single 90-day window. Landlords who assume they have to start counting over every time a tenant pays end up under-counting real strikes and missing the point where they could have applied to the Tribunal.

What each of the three notices must say

Every notice given under this rule must include four things, confirmed by Tenancy Services:

• The amount of overdue rent.
• The dates for which the rent was or is overdue.
• The tenant's right to apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to challenge the notice.
• How many other notices under this same rule the landlord has already given the tenant in the relevant 90-day period.

That last point is easy to miss because it changes with every notice. The first notice states zero prior notices; the second states one; the third states two. A notice that's missing this running count, or gets the count wrong, is a notice a tenant can challenge on procedural grounds.

Worked example: three occasions in one tenancy

Take a periodic tenancy with rent due every Monday. The tenant misses three separate payments over roughly ten weeks.

Notice the third occasion lands on a Tuesday, not the Monday you'd expect from counting five weekdays on a calendar. Monday 26 October 2026 is Labour Day, a public holiday, so it doesn't count as a working day. The 5th working day after 19 October pushes forward to 27 October instead. This is the same working-day mechanic that trips landlords up on notice deadlines generally: weekends and public holidays both move the count.

From the 1st occasion (10 August) to the 3rd occasion (27 October) is 78 calendar days, inside the 90-day window. All three notices are valid, and the landlord can now apply to the Tribunal.

What happens after the third notice

Once the third notice has been given, the landlord has 28 calendar days to file the Tribunal application. In this example, the third notice was given on 27 October 2026, so the application needs to be filed by 24 November 2026.

The tenant can challenge any of the three notices at the Tribunal, typically by arguing the rent wasn't actually 5 working days overdue, or that a notice was missing one of the four required elements. The landlord needs to be able to show all three occasions actually happened and that each notice met the requirements.

Common mistakes landlords make

• Assuming a paid-off occasion no longer counts. It still counts toward the three strikes, even after the arrears are cleared.
• Forgetting public holidays when counting the 5 working days. A holiday in the middle of the count pushes the occasion date forward, exactly like the Labour Day example above.
• Leaving out the running count of prior notices on the second and third notice, or getting the number wrong.
• Measuring the 90-day window from the wrong date. It runs from each occasion's actual trigger date (the 5th working day), not from the rent due date.
• Filing after the 28-day Tribunal deadline has closed following the third notice.
• Trying to use this rule on a fixed-term tenancy. It's available for periodic tenancies only.

How Rentally helps

Rentally does the counting, logging, and drafting. You review. You decide. You send. Once rent on a tenancy passes 5 working days overdue, Rentally logs the occasion automatically, including the public-holiday adjustment. Each notice is pre-filled from your tenancy data with the correct running count of prior notices, and the rolling 90-day window is tracked across every occasion so you always know exactly how many strikes are live. If a third notice goes out, Rentally flags the 28-day Tribunal deadline so it doesn't slip past.

Rentally is built around the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, NZ-only, and starts at $9 a month for the first two properties.

Written by

Ron Venturina

Founder, Rentally

NZ founder building Rentally so self-managing landlords don't lose money to the same RTA admin gaps my parents did. Working days, strikes, Healthy Homes, IRD expenses, all sorted in one app.