Proposed Credit Reporting Privacy Code

13 Oct 2004

The New Zealand Property Investors Federation scored a significant win for its members with the recent release of the proposed credit reporting privacy code.

After hearing submissions from the Federation and some of its member associations the Privacy Commissioner has made a number of significant amendments to the proposed code.

Of particular interest is the Code’s definition of a “prospective landlord” namely a person who has offered to grant a tenancy of premises to an individual, or one who has entered into negotiations to grant a tenancy to an individual.

The second key area is contained in Schedule 4 “Summary of Rights” which states that prospective landlords are authorized to access credit databases.

In summary, the rewrite of the code is a major win for landlords and is clearly the result of strong written and oral submissions made to the Privacy commissioner earlier this year.

The processes remaining with the proposed Code is as follows:

• Proposed Code to be issued at the end of October
• Code to come into effect on 1 April 2005
• Review of Code (operational for 2 years) after April 2008

Craig Paddon
President
NZPIF