No! No! No! Renter Rights NOW! Not in 2020 – don’t do a Hobbit Law on this

By
Martyn Bradbury
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10
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It’s about time the Government moved on the grotesque imbalance of power between Landlord and Renter with some attempt at righting some wrongs…

Housing Minister Phil Twyford unveils plan to overhaul tenancy laws
The Government has announced a reform of tenancy laws today in an effort to “make life better for renters”.

A discussion document released by Housing Minister Phil Twyford today proposes:

• ending cancellations of tenancies without cause while ensuring landlords can still get rid of rogue tenants;

• increasing the notice period a landlord must give tenants when ending a lease from 42 days to 90 days;

• limiting rent increases to once a year and scrapping bidding for rental properties

• provide better processes for landlords and tenants to agree on pets or minor alterations to homes;

…We require new law cementing in long term tenancies with rent controls and the promotion of ‘ethical landlords’, people who refuse to squeeze every last drop of money out of their tenants for needless greed.

The real problem here however is that this won’t come into effect until maybe 2020. That’s a terrible idea because Landlords will make it an election issue and seeing as the over inflated speculative housing market is the only pretence of wealth most Boomers have, they will viciously move heaven and earth to blunt these renter rights.

Renters Rights risks being the next Hobbit Law, something Labour should have rammed through in their first 100 days but instead backed down and allow the Right to manurvere against them.

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10 COMMENTS

  4. I rent ..
    I think letting fees are a rip off ..

    The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, prohibiting letting fees passed its first reading and is currently in select committee. The report back from SC is due October 5th.

    At this pace the Bill is likely to be in effect before years end. This will be something advantageous I don’t have to wait until 2020 for.

    Chop Chop Labour .. I vote based on results, not promises of what could be if Labour and Co are elected for another term. Learn from the failure of he Maori Party and United Future. Learn from Act’s prolonged lack of traction. Learn from 9 year in opposition. Learn from National’s lack of friends.

    I voted for TOP and ALCP. Still lots of time before the election, but I can’t support Labour as I’m blocked on their Facebook – anti freedom-of-speech is a deal breaker for me.

    If the election was held today, I’d probably vote for New Zealand First.

  5. More than half of politicians have housing portfolios themselves.
    Wonder why they haven’t done anything…
    This is all politicising, pretend to look concerned while doing bugger all.

  6. I acknowledge: I don’t now know anything really about renting a place in which to live – my renting days basically ended when I became a NZRN. I worked hard & went without much so as to buy my own very modest B &T unit. As a NZRN, I never earned much & my health was poorly from aged 25 years.

    However for the past 6 years I’ve lived next door to a good house that has been rented ever since I came here. All that time, that house has been rented by only one group of decent clean-living & tidy people (who sadly moved out a couple of weeks ago). Prior, all tenants have been disgustingly filthy-living people, who trashed the house from ceilings to & including the floor. The last lot of them ripped out a brand new hot water cylinder & stole the good-condition stove. The same “people” spread filth & rubbish everywhere outside the house as well as inside. Faeces-filled disposable nappies were regularly put into the recycle bin. The dog was NEVER walked. It was left an entire Easter with water but not a skerrick of food. It was often threatened with a big stick (I could see from my back door) & cowered when I spoke to it kindly when I found it loose on the street one day. Three little girls were so frequently & loudly verbally abused by their “father”, that I was bound to try to address that. The male of that household had such a sense of entitlement that he regularly came onto my property during the night, even up to the back fence & did as he pleased, including destroying some of my plants. I had to have a trespass notice served on him before his invasion ceased.

    I saw one woman (professional cleaner) & exclaimed at how shockingly dirty & trashed the house was when the last terribly filthy & destructive renters moved out (by legal compulsion). The cleaning woman told me that she regularly cleaned houses in similar condition after tenants had been lawfully evicted.

    I have seen so much of what don’t-give-a-damn renters do to good homes that if I were able, I wouldn’t invest in a home to rent. I grew up in a State house: my parents & we 5 kids treated it as if it was our own home. Kept in good “nick”, beautiful & productive garden, & ultimately my parents were given opportunity & bought the property.

    During my own time of renting, I also treated the flat or house & property as if it was my own. Last time (2003), I persuaded my landlord to let me create a lovely, productive garden – such that the children next door often told me my garden was “cool”. Before I left that property, I told the landlord that I was moving out on the Friday & that they would be able to let the house the next Saturday morning because the only cleaning I hadn’t done was the outside of the windows (I couldn’t safely reach them). I know that the owners re-let the house as I’d assured them they’d be able to.

    All landlords/ladies are not predators seeking only money. Of course they wish for a reasonable return on their investment, but from what I’ve too often seen, it wouldn’t be worthwhile to me – too great a financial loss too often!

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