Rental rules face changes

The council has started rewriting rules covering homeowners letting their properties to short-term visitors after its plans to enforce an almost-ignored bylaw led to a national uproar last year.

National MP Nick Smith accused councillors of being "busybody bureaucrats" at the time and said he would seek to change the Resource Management Act to prevent the council proceeding, while the Real Estate Institute said it would consider seeking an injunction against the rules.

A special report presented to the council's strategy committee this week suggested softening the rules that would have seen as many as 1000 ratepayers in Queenstown and Wanaka facing rate increases of between 90 per cent and 140% as well as having to seek resource consent and pay development contributions for letting their homes.

Instead, the report suggested a three-tiered approach.

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