Rental disputes rise in Bay

Unpaid rent is a major reason for formal tenancy disputes.

Unpaid rent and termination breaches have triggered hundreds of formal tenancy disputes between Hawke's Bay landlords and tenants, new figures reveal.

Last year, 755 complaints were filed with the Hastings Tenancy Tribunal - a five-year high in the number of complaints.

In Napier, 634 complaints were filed and in Wairoa there were 16 complaints.

Most of the complaints at Hastings and Napier tribunals were made by landlords. In Wairoa, all 16 complaints were filed by landlords.

Tribunal orders were issued for all Wairoa cases and more than half of Hastings and Napier cases. The remainder were dealt with through mediation.

Meanwhile, the heat stays on the rental market with new Trade Me Property data showing April median weekly rents up $5 year-on-year in Hastings and $10 year-on-year in Napier.

Quinovic Hastings principal Ross Davidson expected Hastings' five-year high of complaints was due to more tenants struggling to come up with rent.

"I'd say that's a result of the economic conditions of Hawke's Bay," he said. "There's a lot of people that spend part of the year on [Work and Income benefits] and the other part of the year doing seasonal work.

"Last year wasn't great for seasonal work so a lot of people would have had shorter hours and less money in their pocket."

Quinovic Hastings used the tribunal only when completely necessary, he said. "It's an effective tool but it's a last resort.

"As soon as rent is overdue or there's an issue with the property, we get in touch with the tenants and try to sort it out with them.

"If that doesn't work, we go through phone mediation. If the issue still isn't solved, we'll then go to the tribunal."

A thorough reference check was the best way to avoid issues in the first instance, he said.

"It doesn't matter who they are or what they do, we do credit checks, reference checks and check on the tenancy website to see they haven't got any orders against them."

Nationwide, landlords and tenants made 32,097 complaints to the tenancy tribunal in the last year.

In 2010, more than 33,000 complaints were made, while more than 35,000 applications were made each year between 2011 and 2013.

Last year, landlords made 29,436 complaints and tenants made 2661.

More than 19,000 complaints were dealt with through tribunal orders and more than 12,000 were sorted through mediation.

Tenants Protection Association manager Helen Gatonyi expected the national decrease in complaints was due to more cases being fast tracked through mediation.

"If the issues are being resolved that way, it's a good thing," she said. "If a tenant does get behind on rent and ends up at the tribunal, it goes on their record and they find it very hard to get into the rental market again."

Ms Gatonyi wasn't surprised the vast majority of complaints were from landlords.

"We hear of a lot of tenants that have problems with the property they're in but they don't want to go to the tribunal about it.

"There's such high demand for rental properties that they worry they'll end up having to leave and then they won't find anywhere else."NZME.