National party backs property rental rights

Fears that all New Zealanders will soon be paying hefty council costs to rent out their holiday homes have prompted a call by the National Party for a law change.

It comes after Queenstown Lakes District Council began enforcing a law which says anyone who lets their bach or holiday home to more than four paying guests for less than three months of the year needs resource consent to do so. The consent has a one-off cost of up to $1400.

National Party local government spokesman Nick Smith said National would change the law so that could not happen.

"I think what they have done sets an awful precedent and there is the worry that other councils might follow suit," he said.

"I want to vigorously defend the right of a bach or a holiday home owner to rent their home for as many weeks of the year as they want to without busybody bureaucrats poking their nose in."

Dr Smith said he had heard from people in Auckland, Wellington and Nelson upset by the fact that if they wanted to rent out their Queenstown holiday house at various times of the year, they would have to pay.

He had heard that Taupo, Whakatane and Tasman District Councils had discussed similar proposals.

Queenstown Mayor Clive Geddes said that the council has had the power for the last 10 years through its district plan to make people get a resource consent to rent baches.

But the council only started enforcing the rule three months ago because of the growing number of people in the last five years renting out their baches like hotel rooms.

He said the council wanted to target the law at 600 homes in the district which were being operated as one to three-night accommodation units with an on-site manager, and profits to be made of up to $50,000 a year.

The council was looking at changing the district plan so the rules would not apply to bach owners who let their property occasionally.

Mr Geddes said it wasn't until the council started getting complaints from the accommodation sector last August that the scale of rental activity became apparent.

In just one Queenstown street 10 properties in a row were being managed as a hotel.

"It is not an issue until agencies turn this into a business ... where people go away and put their property into the hand of an agent ... getting up to $250 a night."

Dr Smith agreed that it was different when a place had a manager and was therefore like a motel, but he wanted people who let their bach for three or four months of the year to be able to without restrictions.

Labour MP for Otago, David Parker, said in Parliament last month that he supported the district council on the issue.

"It would be quite unfair if one could rent out commercial quasi-hotel accommodation in residential housing in Queenstown," he said.