Reports of tenants ‘in tears’, waiting nearly two months for bond returns
Friday, 9 January 2026
Tenancy Bond Services has apologised for long delays in refunding rental bonds after a blow-out in processing times, and said it had deployed more staff to get refunds out more quickly.
Carrie Metcalfe, owner of the iRentProperty property management company, said bond refund times were stretching into weeks, and some people were still waiting for refunds they had applied for in November.
“I’m aware of tenants who have been waiting close to two months for their bond refunds, when usually it takes 10 working days,” Metcalfe said.
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She said the average bond in iRentProperty’s portfolio exceeded $2500 per tenancy.
“This is a significant amount of money for tenants to be without, particularly when they need it to secure their next home,” Metcalfe said.
Kat Watson, head of Tenancy Services, said Tenancy Bond Services aimed to refund bonds within five working days.
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But, she said: “We are experiencing delays, and we apologise to our customers for any inconvenience.
“We are working hard to improve timeliness and access to customer support because we understand how important it is for people to receive their bond money,” she said.
Just how important was shown by a post by one unhappy member of the NZ Tenancy Help and Support Facebook group, members of which have expressed their concerns in recent weeks.
The poster said in early December they had been waiting for three weeks to get their bond back after leaving a rental.
They posted: “Me &my 4yr old moved from a fully furnished place to unfurnished … as the owners moved back in. I had to use our savings for our new bond at a new place, and was going to use our bond refund for furniture. Sleeping on the floor is not how i planned our Christmas to go. Literally in tears typing this.”
An email sent on Thursday to one person waiting for a bond refund, lodged on December 17, said Tenancy Services was “currently working on refund forms received on the 11th of December. This means you should expect your refund to be processed in the next 5-7 working days”. That would bring the refund to nearly five weeks after lodging it.
The response said refunds were taking 10 working days and the holiday period between December 24 and January 4 - which included four public holidays - were included in the working day timeframe.
There appeared to be no system at Tenancy Bond Services for identifying people in vulnerable circumstances, like the parent of the four-year-old who posted on Facebook.
Landlords had also been experiencing negative impacts from the refund delays, Metcalfe said.
“I’m aware of a landlord who was awarded a $2220 refund following contamination of their property with methamphetamine,” she said.
“Despite a clear tribunal order, the funds have still not been released. As a result, the property remains vacant.”
Had the money been paid to the landlord, the property could have been cleaned and repaired, and offered for rent again.
Metcalfe also said property managers had been told changes at Tenancy Bond Services had been recently made to modernise the service, and improve efficiency.
But, she said: “Just yesterday, I received a refund of $1320 that should have been paid to the tenant, while the tenant was meant to receive $690. This occurred despite the bond refund paperwork being 100% accurate when submitted to the Bond Centre.”
Watson said a peak in demand was causing the delays for bond refunds, but also said the service had also had to deal with customer queries around new bond technology, and the new pet consent legislation and pet bonds introduced from December 1.
But, she said: “We have increased the number of people processing bond refunds and responding to queries, and performance is improving as a result.”
Watson said automated self-service bond refunds were available to landlords and property management offices using specific software and Property Management Software users should ask about it.
Watson also suggested that any tenants waiting for a refund should check that they aren’t the hold-up.
“We are surprised about the cases mentioned in [this] story, and we would suggest that if anyone is waiting longer than a couple of weeks it is mostly likely that Tenancy Bond Services do not have the complete application to process the refund to completion. We would encourage people to check their emails (and spam) to see if they have any correspondence from the team, and we encourage them to contact us immediately to query a delayed refund.”
Facebook posts indicated people were struggling to contact Tenancy Bond Services by phone, and Watson said wait times were averaging 48 minutes.
Tenancy Bond Services has been investing in digitising refunds.
Watson said: “We are improving the overall bond service, giving landlords and tenants digital access to provide required information to process bond activities, with automated self-service bond refunds already available for landlords using property management software, like most property management organisations.”
Self-service refunds for all other landlords would launch in early 2026, she said.