Property

More policing of landlords ‘total waste of money’

Some of the $80 million to be spent over the next four years to police Healthy Homes standards, fix the bond centre and fund RTA disputes could be better spent, says the Property Investors Federation.

Monday, May 24th 2021

The money allocated in the Budget is to support timely access to tenancy and unit title dispute resolution services; processing of bond transactions; implementation of tenancy reforms; increased awareness of parties’ rights and responsibilities; and proactive monitoring and investigation of rentals to identify and address systemic non-compliance and reduce the risk of vulnerable tenants being exposed to harm.

Property Investors Federation president Andrew King says $16 million to be spent increasing investigations of rental properties to ensure healthy homes are realised is a total waste of money.

“Landlords are generally following the legislation and getting advice where they have failed inspections, many of them around heat pumps, which has become an issue.

“This is an area where landlords are having to rip out perfectly good heat pumps and install new or extra pumps to meet the Healthy Homes legislation only to find tenants don’t want them because of rising power bills, is a problem.”

He says the legislation doesn’t need more policing. Instead the money set aside could fund a lot of extra medical operations, new medicines from Pharmac and teachers in schools.

“It would be far better spent in these areas and do some good for the whole country.”

Making it simpler

An additional $5 million has been allocated to support the Tenancy Tribunal to manage increasing demand from changes to the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act.

King says it is only a drop in the bucket for running the tribunal.

He says the federation is going to make a stand in encouraging the Ministry of Justice to consider a centralised service where landlords can send information on rent arrears by email and have the case settled within five days. Instead of the seven weeks it now takes.

The majority of Tenancy Tribunal decisions are about rent arrears and King says if a simpler and efficient service was set up, it would free up court time for more serious cases, which can often take months to go through the tribunal.

He says this goes hand-in-hand with urgency for landlords who might have a tenant who has stopped paying rent but is still living at the property.

“In this situation landlords need a decision within five days, so they can reclaim their property and keep rent arrears to a minimum.”

Collecting rent arrears is also a major problem, says King.

“The tribunal has been able to obtain information on tenants from other government departments for some time, but enforcement has never gone any further.”

The budget also allocates $18 million for the tribunal’s operating expenses and $41.4 million over four years for “a non-controllable shortfall in bond interest revenue”.

Previously the centre was funded by interest from bonds lodged by property investors, but the low interest it receives has impacted this.

Capital expenditure of $20 million has been allocated to improve the tribunal’s ICT system to ensure its system for handling residential bonds is “stable, secure and supported and meets the service requirements and customer expectations”.

Comments

On Wednesday, May 26th 2021 2:15 pm Jason Geil said:

I have lost thousands of dollars because of a tenant. He has trashed my house ,not paid rent,not paid utilities , he is not even staying at the house and nothing I can do . Filed with the tribunal in December 2020 just received a date in July 2021. This is a joke. Shame on the tribunal.

SBS FirstHome Combo 4.69
TSB Special 5.35
Unity First Home Buyer special 5.49
ASB Bank 5.49
Westpac Special 5.49
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 5.49
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.49
Heartland Bank - Online 5.49
ICBC 5.55
Kiwibank Special 5.55
Nelson Building Society 5.55
BNZ - Std 5.29
TSB Special 5.29
ASB Bank 5.29
Kiwibank Special 5.29
Westpac Special 5.29
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.29
Heartland Bank - Online 5.39
ANZ Special 5.44
Unity 5.49
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.49
SBS Bank Special 5.49
Westpac Special 5.39
BNZ - Classic 5.59
ASB Bank 5.79
BNZ - Std 5.79
ICBC 5.79
SBS Bank Special 5.79
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.79
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.89
Kiwibank Special 5.89
TSB Special 5.89
Kainga Ora 5.89
AIA - Back My Build 4.94
SBS FirstHome Combo 4.94
CFML 321 Loans 5.80
CFML Home Loans 6.25
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 6.45
Co-operative Bank - Standard 6.45
Kiwibank - Offset 6.75
Kiwibank 6.75
ASB Bank 6.89
ANZ 6.89
BNZ - Std 6.94

More Stories

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.

Similar Price Growth

Friday, January 10th 2025

Similar Price Growth

Although houses prices typically rise more than apartments over the long-term, the gap is not as wide as many people expect.