Misc

Landlords need relief from outdated rental act

Press Release: United Future NZ Party

Thursday, November 04th 2004

The coming review of the Residential Tenancies Act was applauded today by United Future’s Marc Alexander, who has long championed the rights of landlords to a better deal.

“It’s great news to see the Government finally decide to review the RTA,” he said. Mr Alexander has revealed a string of instances where tenants have trashed rental properties.

“The current legislation is grossly out-of-date and harks back to an era when landlords were looked upon as evil and greedy with the power to make or break families. It was a wrong image then … it’s a wrong image today.

“Landlords are, for the most part, hardworking providers of a much-needed service who are unfairly targeted by a very small number of serial-offending tenants, while being given virtually no reasonable legal protection for their considerable investments.”Chief among the inequities are:

• While the Act specifies what tenants must do there is no provision of offences if the conditions are breached. Meanwhile, sections 12, 17, 18, 19, 23, 27, 29, 30, 48 and 137 contain offences against the landlord with fines or imprisonment provisions. Surely there should be an equivalent set of obligations and penalties on both tenant and landlord?

• Why can a landlord be fined $750 for taking more than four weeks bond or lodging it after 23 days, but a tenant who effectively does the same thing by being in arrears gets a 21-day grace period and faces no punishable offence?

• It is ridiculous that in the event of an abandoned property, the landlord is held liable for non-perishable possessions left behind.

• Why aren’t false references considered an offence for both the tenant and whoever provided the reference and why isn’t it punishable by a fine? In no other transaction of goods and services is a provider so disadvantaged by law. How does it make sense that a tenant’s failure to pay either bond or rent with a bounced cheque does not negate a rental agreement?

“The sad fact is that landlords are fed up with being treated as a renewable resource,” Mr Alexander said.

“Those that are determined to grind down landlords conveniently overlook the reality that ultimately, it is the good tenants who suffer! It is they who will pay the price of what the few bad tenants (encouraged by bad legislation and a toothless tribunal process), get away with!”

Most Read

Unity First Home Buyer special 4.29
SBS FirstHome Combo 4.29
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 4.85
China Construction Bank 4.85
ICBC 4.85
TSB Special 4.89
Kiwibank Special 4.89
ASB Bank 4.89
SBS Bank Special 4.89
Westpac Special 4.89
BNZ - Std 4.89
Nelson Building Society 4.93
ICBC 4.95
SBS Bank Special 4.95
China Construction Bank 4.95
Wairarapa Building Society 4.95
TSB Special 4.95
ANZ Special 4.95
ASB Bank 4.95
Kainga Ora 4.95
Westpac Special 4.95
AIA - Go Home Loans 4.95
SBS Bank Special 5.39
Westpac Special 5.39
ICBC 5.39
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.59
BNZ - Std 5.59
BNZ - Classic 5.59
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.59
ASB Bank 5.59
Kainga Ora 5.69
Kiwibank Special 5.79
ANZ 5.79
SBS Construction lending for FHB 3.94
AIA - Back My Build 4.44
CFML 321 Loans 4.99
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.95
Co-operative Bank - Standard 5.95
Heartland Bank - Online 5.99
Pepper Money Prime 6.29
Kiwibank - Offset 6.35
Kiwibank 6.35
TSB Special 6.39
Kainga Ora 6.44

More Stories

Four decades of 6-7% yearly house price growth ending

Friday, March 21st 2025

Four decades of 6-7% yearly house price growth ending

New Zealander’s reliance on property capital gains in the mid-single digits is at an end.

[TMM Podcast] Yelsa serves up “marine reserve” of property buyers

Friday, January 31st 2025

[TMM Podcast] Yelsa serves up “marine reserve” of property buyers

It’s been years in the making and former real estate agent Mike Harvey is now coming to market with his platform matching buyers and sellers, an offering he says will be a gamechanger for the industry.

Leaving last year's stumbling housing market behind

Friday, January 17th 2025

Leaving last year's stumbling housing market behind

As interest rates ease and job losses climb, New Zealand’s housing market faces a mixed year of modest growth, with conflicting forces shaping the outlook for homebuyers and investors.

Don’t bet on house prices rising faster than incomes

Wednesday, January 15th 2025

Don’t bet on house prices rising faster than incomes

Former Reserve Bank Governor and National Party leader Don Brash says there are grounds for believing that house prices may finally have ended the three-decade period when they rose significantly faster than incomes.