Tenants in school houses

Anyone can live in a school house – tenants don’t have to be school employees. For example, there’s no legal requirement for schools to provide a house for teachers or principals as a condition of their employment. However, in some cases schools do lease their houses to school staff, particularly in remote areas or places where it’s difficult to find housing.

The responsibility for finding a tenant for a school house is dependent on the type of house it is.

We’re responsible for finding tenants for Crown-owned school houses, including:

• new school houses – these are known as ‘core houses’
• Crown-owned school houses that we don’t manage – these are known as ‘non-core houses’. Non-core houses are managed by our national housing contractor.

School boards are responsible for tenanting houses they own and manage – that includes:

• core houses – most core houses are owned, funded and managed by school boards
• caretaker houses – these houses are owned by the Crown, but managed by the school board.

About school houses

Boards are responsible for setting and collecting rent. Rent should be set at the normal market rate and reviewed every year. Rent cannot include GST.

Tenancy Services sets out the rules and regulations for managing tenants, tenancy agreements and rent payments. Boards should contact Tenancy Services about any tenancy disputes.

Tenancy Servicesopen_in_new

Rent for a tenant who is not employed as a school caretaker should be set at the normal market rate. 

Rent for a school caretaker living in a caretaker house is historically low. It’s negotiated as part of the caretaker’s employment contract.

Boards can negotiate rent rates with either:

• a union representative, if the caretaker is a union member and you need them to occupy the house as a condition of their employment
• the caretaker directly, if they're not a union member. 

Low rents are an accommodation discount and part of the caretaker’s salary package. Rent from caretaker houses must be paid to our National Housing Contractor, who then pays it to us.  

We have an agreement with Inland Revenue on how the benefit is taxed. This is processed through the Ministry of Education payroll. For more information about caretaker rents, contact the Ministry of Education. 
 
Contact us – Ministry of Education open_in_new
 
Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa (formerly the New Zealand School Trustees Association) has information about employing staff. 
 
Help for boards – Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoaopen_in_new

Registered teachers and principals on the Ministry of Education payroll get a 25% discount off the current market rent for any type of school house. 

This is known as a ‘service tenancy’ and is authorised under the Education and Training Act 2020. 

Section 562, Education and Training Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislationopen_in_new