Changes to your address, housing or accommodation costs

Changed address

If you've moved or have a new postal address you'll need to tell us:

• your new address
• your new postal address
• the date you moved.

Rent or board costs

If your rent or board costs have changed, you'll need to tell us:

• who you live with
• how much you're now paying
• when the costs changed.

We'll let you know if you need to do anything else like providing proof of costs.

---

Own your own property

You need to tell us of any changes to your:

• mortgage - if it's with Kāinga Ora (used to be Housing New Zealand) you'll need the current interest rate
• council rates
• house insurance
• mortgage protection insurance
• water rates
• grounds lease or body corporate fees
• costs for essential repairs and maintenance in the last 12 months.

We'll need to know:

• who you pay
• how often you make payments
• how much you pay
• the date when the costs changed.

We'll let you know if you need to do anything else like providing proof of costs.

Rent or board payments you get

You need to tell us if the amount of board or rent you get has changed if you are getting:

• an income-tested benefit (e.g. Jobseeker Support, Supported Living Payment), or
• a housing subsidy (e.g. Accommodation Supplement, Temporary Additional Support, Away from Home Allowance), or
• Income Related Rent.

You need to tell us:

• the address
• details of the person paying you board or rent
• how much the board or rent is
• when you get paid, and how often.

You can tell us this in MyMSD, by selecting 'Declare boarders and renters' on the home page.

If you can’t use MyMSD, you can complete the Board and rent information form instead:

You can get this to us by bringing it into any Work and Income service centre (you don’t need an appointment for this), or posting it to us.

We'll let you know if you need to do anything else, like providing proof of costs.

If you have a rent redirection set up (where we pay your rent directly to your landlord) and you get a new landlord, you will need to set up a new redirection.

You don't need to do this if you're living in public housing as we'll organise your rent payments with Kāinga Ora (used to be Housing New Zealand).

To set this up for a new private landlord you need to:

• complete a Redirection of Benefit Payment form
• provide proof:
  • to support your application
  • of your new landlord's bank account
• ask your new landlord to sign the bottom of page 3 of the application form.

Talk to us about how to get this information to us.

What your landlord needs to do

Your landlord will need to register with us as a supplier, if they haven't already.

When people tell us about their accommodation costs, we ask them:

• if they pay rent, board or homeownership costs, and if they get rent or board payments
• who they pay it to, or are paid by
• how much and how often those payments are.

If both the boarder/renter and the person they pay board or rent to (e.g. their landlord or the head tenant) are getting either a housing subsidy or are living in public housing, we need to independently check this information with each of them.

If it doesn't match, we need to contact both these people to get the correct details. This is part of meeting their obligations.

We'll try calling them first. If we can’t contact them by phone, we'll send them a letter giving them 10 working days to confirm the correct details. We'll also send them a MyMSD notification, where they can confirm the details.

If they don't confirm or still don't agree, after the 10 working days:

• if they get a housing subsidy, this will stop on day 11
• if they are an public housing tenant, we will notify the housing provider and their rent may go up to market rent.