Shock at discovering home's grisly past

Real estate laws in New Zealand do not require property managers to reveal the history of a house to prospective tenants - something the current tenant of the Otumoetai home where a mother and daughter were brutally murdered this year says is not acceptable.
About six weeks ago Tareena Tawhara and her partner Peter Harrison moved into the property where 32-year-old Ravneet Sangha and her 2-year-old daughter Anna were killed in June this year. The couple said they learnt about the crime through a taxi driver, who drove Mr Harrison to the property, and their new neighbours.
A spokesman for the Real Estate Agents Authority (REAA) said only some property managers were licensed under the Real Estate Agent's Act 2008.
"They are exempt from the requirement to be licensed through recently enacted provisions in the Residential Tenancies Act." If the property manager is licensed under the act, a complaint may be laid with the REAA. The complaint is then referred to the Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC) - an independent decision-making body.
Ms Tawhara said she felt all property managers - licensed or not - should be obliged to tell tenants about the history of a property.
"Apparently, they don't have to tell you anything."
The REAA spokesperson said the act empowered the CAC to impose penalties of up to $10,000 for an individual licensee or $20,000 for a company.
It also empowers the Real Estate Agent's Disciplinary Tribunal to impose a wider range of penalties including licence suspension and/or cancellation or fines of up to $100,000.
A licensed Tauranga property manager, who did not wish to be named, said property managers who did not reveal important details about a property to prospective tenants gave others a bad name.
She said she and her colleagues revealed any details of past criminal activity in a house or deaths - natural or otherwise.
"Any kind of death, we tell people what's happened in a house."
She said licensed property managers had a duty to disclose.
"If we'd done that (not told the prospective tenants about the murders) the tenant could have laid a complaint with the authority.
"But a private landlord could get away with it."
A spokesperson from the Tenancy Tribunal said a landlord had an obligation to fully and fairly respond to any questions asked by a prospective tenant.
"If they do not, the Tribunal may release the tenant from the Tenancy Agreement and, where appropriate, award compensation."
The property management firm involved with the Ngatai Rd property declined to comment when approached by the Bay of Plenty Times.