How we assess applications | Community Housing Regulatory Authority

Once an application is received, it undergoes an initial review of the information provided before the application can be accepted. This check is to ensure that:

the organisation meets the eligibility criteria
all the supporting documents have been provided, including the required financial documents as set out in the performance standards and guidelines.

Applications are allocated for assessment in the order they are accepted as full and complete. Please note that due to the high interest in CHP registration, all applicants are likely to experience a waiting period of up to six months from the application being accepted to when it is allocated for the full assessment.

Once an application is accepted and allocated, we will commence an in-depth assessment of you organisation's ability to meet the Performance Standards.

We may require additional information or clarification about aspects of the information during our assessment. When we do, we will send you a further information request (FIR). You will be given six weeks to provide the additional information or clarification. We will not progress the application any further until this information has been received. If you do not respond to the FIR, your application will be declined.

How do we decide?

When we review applications for registration, we want to know that:

community housing tenants will be housed appropriately for the duration of their housing need
their rights under the Residential Tenancies Act 1986(external link) are protected at all times.

We will determine this by assessing applicants’ capacity to meet the five performance standards:

Governance: The provider will ensure it is well-governed at all times.
Management: The provider is managed in a safe, efficient and effective manner at all times.
Financial viability: The provider demonstrates financial viability and solvency at all times.
Tenancy management: The provider is a responsive and effective landlord.
Property and asset management: The provider manages its housing assets in a manner that ensures properties are suitable.

After we evaluate the application, we’ll make a recommendation to the Head of CHRA, who will make the decision on whether the applicant should be registered.

Our principles

To help guide our work, we have a set of principles we apply when assessing applications for registration and continued compliance with the Performance Standards:

Proportionality

We consider the level of risk CHPs and their tenants are exposed to, including size, scale, location and experience in carrying out regulated activities.

For registration, this means assessing whether the policies, procedures and systems an organisation has in place demonstrate the capacity to meet the Performance Standards for an organisation of its size, and scale of housing provision. For example, we would not expect a small CHP with 10 houses and no aspirations for growth to produce a detailed strategic plan (unless they have significant growth aspirations).

Transparency

This principle involves CHRA being able to justify decisions and being open to public scrutiny. We collect, use and share the information we obtain, in a manner consistent with Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s transparency statement(external link).

Fairness and consistency

We have fair, clear and open processes, and our decisions are made in an unbiased and consistent manner.