Residential Tenancies Act 1986

23 Rent in advance

(1)

A landlord shall not require the payment of any rent—

(a)

more than 2 weeks in advance; or

(b)

before the expiry of the period for which rent has been paid already.

(2)

Where, in the case of a service tenancy or of any other tenancy where the landlord is the employer of the tenant,—

(a)

the landlord, by agreement with the tenant or pursuant to or in accordance with any enactment, regularly deducts from the tenant’s pay for a standard pay period the amount of rent payable by the tenant for any standard rental period; and

(b)

no such regular deduction is such as to constitute a contravention of subsection (1); and

(c)

because of a forthcoming holiday period or for any other special reason, the landlord pays the tenant for a period longer than the standard pay period,—

the landlord may, notwithstanding subsection (1), deduct from the amount so paid the amount of rent payable by the tenant for any period longer than the standard rental period so long as the proportion of pay so deducted on account of rent does not exceed the proportion of pay regularly deducted.

(3)

A landlord shall not require any payment of rent to be made by postdated cheque or other similar postdated order.

(4)

The requirement of the payment of rent in contravention of this section is hereby declared to be an unlawful act.

Compare: 1973 No 26 s 21; Residential Tenancies Act 1978–1981 ss 31, 39 (SA)