In some tenancies, the renter is given very little personal respect and is expected to comply with every single whim. Also, getting a landlord to reimburse urgent repairs can be a veritable nightmare. They pay your bloody mortgages so you CAN have that “secure future”. Some of them can be pretty screwed at the end of day when it comes to your decisions, due to the financial situations they find themselves in etc. How would you like having lookiloos traipsing through your private space three times a day because the owner of the property you are renting, decides he/she wants to sell it? It gets EXTREMELY frustrating. Now that I am a property owner (who has been renting out for years now) and have experienced this, I give my tenants total respect and in return I have never had a bad experience. If you treat them like they are just bums on seats and just there to pay for your investment, you will get the same treatment back – that your house is just a dirt box for them to crap in.

The way some of you sound on here infuriates me and makes me wonder if some of your bad experiences were in part due to your own actions. This is why insurance exists. From the DBH website… “It is up to a landlord to insure their rental property against any damage, either through accident or otherwise.” Grow a brain and get a policy.

It is becoming strange in New Zealand that somebody will do damage to your property and you will pay for that damage. It seems that New Zealand is becoming a place to commit crime and individual is free. If this happens then people will start moving away from properties. The RTA discriminates and it is only for tenant not for landlords. I hold several residential properties across New Zealand and I have seen time and time again that most decisions from court (Tenancy Tribunal) were ruled in favour of the tenant. Whatever the tenant says in court is considered a strong proof.

This kind law does not exist in the developed world, I live in the States and hold rental here too but laws are very good. For example if the tenant fails to pay rent on time, they have to pay a late fee set in their contract. Why then do they have double standard in law? If you fail to pay your mortgage on time, you pay a late fee. The same rule should apply here. I believe this will draw economic loss to the country in the long run if the Govt doesn’t take the appropriate steps.

We invest money for gain not for loss; this law will put us landlords at a loss. If the Govt bring this kind of law then this country will become the capital of crimes in each sector, as you have seen theft; burglary, we are close to one ranking. People are getting very concerned about these kind of things. There should be mass protest nation-wide against this new RTA and more submissions. I believe that is the only way for this kind of Govt.

Does allowing tenants more rights and allowing them to get away with more actually help them in the long run?

But it seems to me they want to make it all too hard. We pay for our welfare state in our taxes – and I don’t have a problem with that. But when we are expected to pay again simply because we have worked hard to try to cover our own futures, that just isn’t fair. When my current good tenants move on, I think my rental will be on the market. The risk in owning rental property now seems to outweigh the potential return.

And doing away with a letting fee is crazy. Why should tenants expect to get a free service? All we’ll do is charge the owner who will then increase rents by $5 a week which will cost the taxpayer about $17 million a year in extra benefits.

What about tenants paying interest on late rents? The owner who misses a mortgage payment gets penalised by the bank, so the tenant MUST be responsible and yet this idea was hooted down by the officials who wrote this paper. I was there and they snorted in derision at the very idea.

Lets hope we get a decent crack at submission time.

Many tenants are very aware of their ‘rights’, and I see such a move as encouraging them to treat rental properties with disdain. The current policy of allowing state tenants to abuse the accommodation provided is now being forced onto private landlords.

Recent refurbishment of a tenanted property has cost me over $3,500 – all because of tenant damage. That was the equivalent of almost thirteen weeks rent. (This tenant had passed all the checks prior to moving in 18 months previously.) Given the current mortgage interest rates, it is hard to see any benefit from being the owner of ‘budget’ accommodation in what used to be a very pleasant part of South Auckland. I wonder how the current Government will respond if a sufficient number of private landlords decide to cut their losses and invest away from the rental market.