A clause-by-clause comparison of what ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac and Kiwibank publish in their Home
Loan Terms & Conditions — pulled verbatim from each bank's source PDF, cited.
TL;DR
CCCFA s55B applies to every NZ home loan — you have a statutory right to apply for a hardship variation regardless of what your bank's T&C says.
ANZ and ASB publish explicit hardship procedures in their Home Loan T&Cs, including a definition of qualifying life events.
BNZ, Westpac, and Kiwibank don't reproduce a dedicated hardship clause in their published Home Loan T&Cs — apply by phone and cite the CCCFA s55B right.
This page is general information, not legal advice. For a hardship application talk to a licensed mortgage adviser via our matching form or contact the bank directly.
The legal framework — CCCFA s55B
Section 55B of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 gives every consumer borrower
the right to apply for a variation to their credit contract on grounds of unforeseen hardship.
The lender must consider the application and respond within 20 working days — they can't simply
refuse to engage. The statutory right applies even if the bank's T&C doesn't mention
hardship.
Hardship grounds typically include illness or injury, loss of employment, end of a relationship,
or another reasonable cause — and the bank can vary your repayments, the loan term, or the
payment dates to make the contract sustainable. The
CCCFA s55B text
is the canonical reference; MBIE's
Responsible Lending Code
explains how the lender should handle the application.
What each bank says — verbatim
Excerpts pulled from each bank's published Home Loan Terms & Conditions PDF on 2026-06-07. The
"similarity" score is the cosine similarity between the query "What hardship relief is available
if I cannot make my repayments?" and the top-matched clause from each bank's T&C in our
pgvector clause index.
ANZ
Detailed in Home Loan T&C
Section: "If you're experiencing hardship – let us know" · query similarity 0.63
"Hardship" includes where you can't meet your responsibilities under this loan agreement because you're sick or injured, you've lost your job, you've ended a relationship, or another reasonable cause.
ANZ publishes an explicit definition of hardship in the Home Loan T&C and lists qualifying life events. This is one of the clearest hardship clauses across the big-5 — borrowers know upfront what triggers eligibility.
If you are unable to keep up your payments because of an unexpected event that causes you hardship, for example illness, injury, loss of employment or the end of a relationship, you can apply to us for a hardship variation of the Facility. Further information on how a hardship application is processed is available on request.
ASB's Retail General T&C (June 2025) has the most procedurally explicit hardship clause: same life-event examples as ANZ, plus a direct application path. Note that detailed procedural info is "available on request" rather than published — worth phoning ASB up front if you're applying.
Section 9.4 (Changes to interest rates / early repayment context) · query similarity 0.49
you may need to repay the amount outstanding and re-borrow under the facility at the new agreed annual interest rate. You may need to pay an early repayment charge if you do this.
BNZ's Home Loan Facility Master Agreement (May 2024) doesn't reproduce a dedicated hardship clause — the highest-similarity match was a section on rate changes, not hardship. BNZ borrowers in hardship should reference the CCCFA s55B statutory right (which applies regardless of what's in the T&C) and BNZ's General Banking T&Cs, which sit outside the home-loan agreement.
If there isn't enough money in your loan repayment account to cover your Westpac loan repayments, the payment won't be processed. We'll try again over the next six days. But if the payment is still unsuccessful, we won't try again.
Westpac's Choices Home Loan T&C (Feb 2024) doesn't dedicate a section to hardship variation. The closest match was a 6-day payment-retry clause, not hardship procedure. Westpac borrowers in hardship should phone the bank directly and invoke CCCFA s55B — the statutory right applies regardless of T&C content.
If we ask you to repay any part of your term loan early, we'll only charge default interest on the amounts that were unpaid at the time we asked you to repay your term loan early.
Kiwibank's NZHL Home Loan T&C (May 2025) doesn't reproduce a dedicated hardship clause — the highest-match section was about default interest treatment. Kiwibank's General Disclosure Statement references the CCCFA framework. For a hardship application, phone Kiwibank's hardship team or apply via the NZ Home Loans adviser channel.
Phone your bank first. Ask for the hardship team. Reference CCCFA s55B. Keep a
written record of who you spoke to and when.
Get free financial mentoring.MoneyTalks (0800 345 123)
is the government-funded service — no fee, qualified mentors, NZ-wide.
Document your situation. Income change, fixed expenses, what you can pay vs.
what's owed. The bank needs this to consider your hardship application.
Talk to a mortgage adviser. A licensed adviser from
Evolve Group Limited (FSP711891) can help
navigate the hardship application alongside refinance options. Start via the
enquiry form.
If the bank refuses to engage, escalate to FSCL.Financial Services Complaints Limited
is the free dispute-resolution scheme covering Evolve and most NZ banks. Phone 0800 347 257.
Search the underlying clauses yourself
Every line of T&C quoted on this page came from our
clause search — a semantic search
across 2,120 verbatim clauses from the big-5 disclosure statements and Home Loan T&Cs. If you
want to dig into a specific bank's clause text, try:
Hardship applications often involve refinance, structure changes, or interest-only periods —
decisions where a licensed adviser earns their keep. Evolve Group Limited (FSP711891) advisers
can help you assemble the application and present it to the bank.
This website is operated by Evolve Group Limited (FSP711891),
a Licensed Financial Advice Provider regulated by the Financial Markets Authority (NZ).
The information published here is general in nature and is not personalised financial advice.
For personalised advice that takes your circumstances into account, request to be matched
with one of our licensed mortgage advisers via the enquiry form.
Rate accuracy.
Rates shown across this site were observed at 7 Jun 2026, 6:57 pm from each lender's
published carded-rate page (linked per row). If a lender has updated their rates since that
timestamp, the authoritative source is the lender's page, not our derived snapshot. Carded rates
are advertised rates — the rate you ultimately receive depends on your application.
CCCFA + Responsible Lending Code. Final lending decisions are made by the lender
under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 and the MBIE Responsible Lending Code.
Lenders apply servicing-test rates (typically around 8% post-2023), debt-to-income caps (RBNZ DTI 6×
owner-occupier / 7× investor from 2024), and Loan-to-Value Ratio limits. Carded rates are not an
offer or a pre-approval.
Disputes. If you have a complaint about advice received through this site,
contact Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL) on 0800 347 257 or info@fscl.org.nz.
Site operated by Evolve Group Limited, FSP711891.
Rates snapshot generator: scripts/snapshot-lenders.mjs.
Machine-readable snapshot: /api/rates/facts.json.
