Landlords are concerned the new law change will make it difficult to get rid of problem tenants.

Changes meaning landlords can no longer give tenants 90-days notice without due cause could jeopardise people's safety and clog up the Tenancy Tribunal, property managers warn.

Proposed changes to tenancy laws were announced on Sunday to give renters more security.

They include the end to landlord's ability to end a lease without cause. Tenants can challenge the reason at the Tenancy Tribunal where landlords must provide evidence to back their case.

RNZ Reports are coming in from around the country of landlords selling up their properties ahead of tougher tenancy regulations. The government is considering changes to the Residential Tenancies Act - including limiting rent rises to once a year and setting the amount of notice a landlord needs to give to terminate a tenancy to 90 days.

However, David Pearse, president of the Property Managers Institute of New Zealand, said he did not believe landlords were misusing the 90-day notice provision.

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In 20 years of property management, he said he had never heard of a landlord randomly changing a tenant as it was a lot of work to do so.

"There is always a reason behind a 90-day notice being issued by a landlord and the Government will need to review and upgrade the Tenancy Tribunal process to cope with the influx of landlord applications."

LUKE MALPASS/STUFF Associate Minister of Housing Kris Faafoi on Sunday announced a suite of tenancy reforms for 2020.

David Faulkner, a former property manager and industry trainer, said he had no problem with other changes such as healthy homes and limiting rent increases, but the end of the "no cause" 90-day notice was a major issue.

It was rarely used, usually to remove a tenant that property managers or landlords felt threatened or uncomfortable by.

Faulkner said tenants already had protections in that they could challenge their notice if they thought it was retaliation for, say, asking for repairs.

But the new changes required landlords or property managers to provide proof, which was sometimes hard to get, especially in remote regions.

"For example, a few years ago you had two property managers shot and killed up in Northland ... and this guy was a loner, out in the middle of the sticks and I suspect those two property managers knew he was a risk.

SUPPLIED David Faulkner of Real IQ, fears property managers will be more at risk if no-cause notices are ended.

"For me, how are you going to get three cases of evidence when you're dealing with extreme cases like this and have it be able to be proven in Tenancy Tribunal on the balance of probabilities?"

"To me it's a real health and safety issue which has not been taken into consideration."

Faulkner said property managers faced intimidating behaviour "all the time".

He knew of one property manager who had had their office set fire to after giving a tenant notice and another who was threatened with bricks through their window.

"These are the things that don't get reported. Police typically don't get involved because it's a civil issue."

The Real Estate Institute agreed it was a concern if the Tenancy Tribunal was deluged with extra cases.

"The current wait time for a tribunal hearing is around six weeks, and our concern is that this could stretch out even longer, causing further damage to a landlord's property in the meantime or further stress for neighbours having to deal with anti-social behaviour," chief executive Bindi Norwell said.

Norwell said agents was also worried about the prospect of "huge administrative costs," or that landlords would offer shorter tenancies or be deterred from leasing properties at all.

"Our preferred approach is to provide for higher exemplary damages to penalise landlords who abuse no-cause terminations," she said.

"We also look forward to hearing from the Government where it is at in terms of its thinking around the methamphetamine guidelines and also the proposals around pets which were originally included in the 2018 consultation period."

Andrew King of the Property Investors Federation was worried the changes would not only make it harder to deal with anti-social tenants but also put their neighbours at risk if they complained.

"Often with intimidating or antisocial behaviour, affected neighbours are reluctant to provide the evidence that landlords would need to end the tenancy. In this scenario, the victimised neighbour would have to leave their property rather than the badly behaving tenant."

But Robert Whitaker of Renters United said large numbers of New Zealanders were now renters, and very few of those behaved badly or belonged to a gang.

"The vast majority of tenants are nice, law-abiding people who pay their rent on time and look after the house, and all they want is the ability to stay in the house ... so they can live a settled life."

More than a million people in 600,000 households rent in New Zealand, and the Government has been under pressure to improve their security of tenure.

The latest changes, which are expected to be passed by Parliament in the new year, will automatically put those on a fixed-term lease on an open-ended "periodic tenancy" at the end of their lease, unless they want to leave.

Landlords can ask tenants to go onto a new fixed-term agreement, but the tenant has to agree.

Another change announced on Sunday will restrict rent rises to one a year. Wellington Property Investors Association president Richard Bacon said this would not work as intended either, as it would only prompt rents to jump in bigger increments.

The key changes are:

* Limiting rent increases to once every 12 months and banning the solicitation of rental bids by landlords.

* Giving tenants more security by removing a landlord's right to use no cause terminations to end a periodic tenancy agreement.

* Letting tenants add minor fittings such as brackets to secure furniture against earthquake risk, to baby proof the property, install visual fire alarms and doorbells, and hang pictures.