OCCUPATION ORDERS, TENANCY ORDERS, AND FURNITURE ORDERS
One of the most common reasons people hesitate to apply for a protection order in New Zealand is the fear that doing so will mean leaving their home with nowhere to go. This concern is understandable, but it is based on a misunderstanding of what the law actually provides. The Family Violence Act 2018 contains a suite of practical orders — occupation orders, tenancy orders, and furniture orders — specifically designed to ensure that victims of family violence are not forced to choose between their safety and their home. These orders can require the respondent to leave the family home, transfer a tenancy entirely into the applicant’s name, and prevent household furniture from being removed or destroyed. If you are in this situation and want to understand what the law can do for you before making any decision about leaving, speaking with a family lawyer Auckland residents can rely on is the most important first step you can take.
If you need assistance applying for a Furniture Order and Occupation Order or Tenancy Order in addition to your Protection Order click here for Protection Order Services in NZ so that you can temporarily remain living in your current home with the furniture.
If children are involved, an application for a Parenting Order is usually applied for concurrently asking the Court to place the child or children in your full time custody / day to day care. See our Auckland family law services home page.
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YOU MAY NOT HAVE TO BE THE ONE WHO LEAVES
The assumption that the person applying for a protection order must be the one to leave the family home is one of the most persistent and damaging misconceptions in this area of law. The Family Violence Act 2018 is built around the opposite principle. It is the person who has committed the family violence who can be required to leave — not the person who has been subjected to it. Occupation orders, tenancy orders, and furniture orders all operate on this basis. They are tools that allow the applicant to remain in the family home with their household belongings, while the respondent is required to vacate and stay away.
These orders can be applied for alongside a protection order application. In urgent circumstances they can be made without notice, meaning the respondent can be required to leave before they are even aware that an application has been filed. For people who have stayed in dangerous situations because they believed they had no alternative, these provisions represent a significant and often life-changing part of what the law provides.
WHAT IS AN OCCUPATION ORDER?
An occupation order is an order under the Family Violence Act 2018 that gives the applicant the right to occupy the family home to the exclusion of the respondent. Once an occupation order is in force, the respondent is required to leave the property and is prohibited from returning without the court’s authorisation. The respondent’s presence at the property while an occupation order is in force will typically also constitute a breach of the protection order, giving the Police the basis to act immediately.
One of the most significant features of the occupation order provisions in the Family Violence Act 2018 is that the court can make such an order regardless of who legally owns the property. If the family home is owned solely by the respondent, is mortgaged in the respondent’s name, or is registered on the title in a way that does not reflect the applicant’s interest, none of this prevents the court from making an occupation order. The applicant’s right to remain in the home is founded on the protection needs established by the Act, not on property law.
In considering whether to make an occupation order, the court will assess the hardship to each party, the welfare of any children in the family, and whether the order is necessary for the protection of the applicant. A temporary occupation order can be made on a without notice basis at the same time as a temporary protection order, and takes effect immediately upon being made.
WHAT IS A TENANCY ORDER?
Where the family home is rented, the relevant provision under the Family Violence Act 2018 is a tenancy order. A tenancy order allows the court to transfer or vest the tenancy in the applicant’s name, even where the existing tenancy agreement is solely in the respondent’s name or is held in the names of both parties jointly. The court does not need the landlord’s consent to make this order.
Once a tenancy order is made, the applicant becomes the sole tenant. The respondent’s rights as a tenant under the existing agreement are extinguished. The applicant is entitled to remain in the property and the tenancy continues on its existing terms. The Residential Tenancies Act 1986 applies to the transferred tenancy in the ordinary way. The landlord must be notified of the order, but importantly, a landlord cannot use the making of a tenancy order as a ground for terminating the tenancy or taking action against the applicant.
The tenancy order provisions exist specifically to address the situation where a victim of family violence would lose their housing simply because the tenancy paperwork was in the respondent’s name. The Family Violence Act 2018 removes that structural barrier entirely. Whether you were named on the tenancy or not, you can apply for a tenancy order that makes you the tenant going forward.
WHAT IS A FURNITURE ORDER?
A furniture order under the Family Violence Act 2018 allows the court to make orders in relation to household furniture and effects in the family home. The court can order that the applicant is entitled to use household furniture and effects. It can prohibit the respondent from removing, selling, mortgaging, damaging, or otherwise disposing of furniture. It can also require the respondent to return furniture that has already been taken from the property before the application was made.
The term household furniture and effects is interpreted broadly. It covers the practical essentials of daily home life: beds and bedding, cooking and eating equipment, appliances, household goods, and the belongings needed to run a home and care for children.
Critically, furniture orders under the Family Violence Act 2018 are not dependent on who owns the furniture or who paid for it. The court can make a furniture order in relation to items that were purchased solely by the respondent. The applicant does not need to have contributed financially to the purchase or to have their name on any receipt. What matters is whether the furniture is household furniture ordinarily used by the family. If it is, the court has the power to protect the applicant’s use of it.
HOW THESE ORDERS WORK TOGETHER
Occupation orders, tenancy orders, and furniture orders are designed to work alongside a protection order to provide comprehensive and practical protection. An occupation order or tenancy order ensures the applicant can remain in the home. A furniture order ensures the home remains functional and that essentials are not stripped away in the aftermath of the respondent being required to leave. The protection order itself provides the overarching legal prohibition on contact and further family violence.
Taken together, these orders address both the safety and the immediate housing and practical needs of the applicant without requiring anyone to leave their home, disrupt their children’s schooling, or scramble for emergency accommodation. All of these orders can be applied for together, in a single application to the Family Court. The court can make all of them simultaneously, and in urgent cases it can do so without notifying the respondent in advance.
THE COURT’S APPROACH: BALANCING HARDSHIP
When deciding whether to make an occupation order or tenancy order under the Family Violence Act 2018, the court is required to consider the respective hardship to the applicant and the respondent. This is not simply a comparison of inconvenience. The court will consider the welfare of any children in the family, the availability of alternative accommodation for each party, and what is necessary for the applicant’s protection.
In practice, the hardship to a respondent of being required to leave the family home is rarely found to outweigh the protection needs of an applicant who has established that family violence has occurred. The respondent is not being removed because of the court’s preference but because of their own conduct. Unlike the applicant, the respondent does not typically face a risk to their physical safety from leaving. Courts applying the Family Violence Act 2018 take the protection of applicants and children seriously, and the hardship balance tends to favour the applicant in cases where the statutory grounds for these orders are made out.
HOW TO APPLY FOR THESE ORDERS
Applications for occupation orders, tenancy orders, and furniture orders are filed in the Family Court as part of, or alongside, a protection order application under the Family Violence Act 2018. A single application can seek all of these orders at once. The application should clearly set out the current living arrangements, the nature of the tenancy or ownership, what furniture is at the property, and why it is necessary for the applicant to remain and the respondent to leave.
Where the circumstances are urgent — for example, where the respondent is actively threatening to remove furniture, interfere with the tenancy, or harm the applicant — all of these orders can be sought on a without notice basis and will take effect immediately if granted. An Auckland family lawyer experienced in family violence proceedings can prepare all elements of the application together, ensuring the court has the information it needs to act decisively and quickly.
WHY THESE ORDERS MATTER IF YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO GO
The most important message of these provisions is straightforward: the Family Violence Act 2018 does not require victims of family violence to leave their home in order to access legal protection. The law is specifically designed to reverse the dynamic where the person who has been harmed is the one who has to uproot their life.
For people who have stayed in dangerous situations because they have children in school, no savings for a bond and rent in advance, no family to stay with, or simply no viable alternative, occupation orders, tenancy orders, and furniture orders change the entire picture. You can remain in your home. You can keep your furniture. If you are renting, the tenancy can be transferred into your name. The law provides the mechanism to make all of this happen through a single application to the Family Court.
Accessing family law services in Auckland from a lawyer who regularly handles these applications means you will understand precisely what the law can achieve in your specific circumstances before you make any decision about whether to apply, and before you consider leaving a home you should not have to leave.
While it is important to understand how protection orders work, successfully applying for a protection order in New Zealand requires careful preparation. A poorly drafted affidavit or failure to seek appropriate related orders, such as occupation or furniture orders, may result in delays or missed opportunities for additional protection.
If you need assistance applying for a protection order, or if you are unsure whether you qualify, obtaining legal advice can help ensure your application is presented effectively. As a specialist Family Lawyer in Auckland, I have extensive experience helping clients obtain protection orders and navigate Family Court proceedings. Click here to book a consultation and receive tailored advice about your situation.
Occupation & Furniture Orders With Protection Order Application FAQs
You can still apply to the Family Court for these orders.The occupation order provisions of the Family Violence Act 2018 expressly allow the court to make an occupation order regardless of who owns the property. It does not matter if the family home is registered in the respondent’s name only, or if the mortgage is solely in the respondent’s name. Property ownership is not the determining factor. The court’s power to make an occupation order arises from the applicant’s need for protection and safe housing, not from any legal ownership interest they hold in the property. Many applicants who have obtained occupation orders have had no ownership interest in the family home whatsoever.
Yes. Furniture orders under the Family Violence Act 2018 are not based on who purchased the furniture or who has proof of purchase. The court can make a furniture order in relation to household furniture and effects regardless of ownership. If the furniture is household furniture ordinarily used by the family, the court can order that the applicant is entitled to use it and can prohibit the respondent from removing, selling, or damaging it. The respondent’s financial contribution to purchasing the furniture is not a bar to the order being made. The purpose of a furniture order is to ensure the applicant and any children can continue to live in the home with the items they need, and the law gives the court the tools to achieve that outcome regardless of who paid for what.
Yes. All of these orders are available under the Family Violence Act 2018 and can be sought together in a single application to the Family Court. You do not need to file separate applications for each type of order or pursue them in sequence. In practice, the most effective approach is to address all of the orders you need in one application, setting out clearly the grounds for each. Where urgency requires it, all of these orders — including the protection order itself — can be sought on a without notice basis, meaning the court can grant them before the respondent knows an application has been filed. The court can then deal with all outstanding matters at the subsequent hearing where both parties have the opportunity to be heard.
Yes, and significantly so. The welfare of children in the family is an express consideration in the court’s assessment under the Family Violence Act 2018 when deciding whether to make an occupation order. Disruption to a child’s living situation, schooling, routine, and stability are all relevant factors in the hardship analysis the court must carry out. Where the applicant is the primary caregiver of young children, the court will carefully consider the impact on those children of being required to leave the family home, versus the hardship to the respondent of being required to leave. In most cases, the need to protect children from disruption and to maintain their stability weighs in favour of the applicant remaining in the home and the respondent being required to vacate.
Yes. This is precisely the situation the tenancy order provisions of the Family Violence Act 2018 are designed to address. A tenancy order can vest the tenancy in the applicant’s name even where the original tenancy agreement was solely in the respondent’s name or held jointly. You do not need to have been a party to the original tenancy agreement for a tenancy order to be made in your favour. Once the order is made, you become the sole tenant, the respondent’s tenancy rights are extinguished, and the landlord cannot use the order as a reason to terminate the tenancy. You are entitled to remain in the property on the existing terms of the tenancy agreement.
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Author Credentials: Naomi Samantha Cramer is a Barrister & Solicitor with over 27 years experience . She is an expert in Family Law and author of several publications including Protection Orders Under the New Zealand Family Violence Act 2018 . Her research and legal insights are documented and available on Google Scholar and ORCID. Professional registration confirmed via the NZ Law Society . You can also find her professional profile on LinkedIn . Click here to view her comprehensive profile and publications at the Author Credentials Hub.