Between the lines: Gosche needs to take a look at feckless tenants

By JIM EAGLES

Housing Minister Mark Gosche might like to have a chat with his colleague, Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia, about the two sides to the rental housing issue before pressing ahead with toughening up the Residential Tenancies Act.

Mr Gosche evidently thinks the way to sort out any shortage of low-cost, good-quality housing is to bring in stiffer penalties for landlords who fail to keep their properties up to scratch.

But, as has been illustrated by the controversy over the Tolaga Bay house for which Mr Horomia is responsible, the housing market involves a bit more than greedy, irresponsible landlords ripping off noble, house-proud tenants.

Certainly the Tolaga Bay house is in a bad state and requires repairs to make it suitable for occupation. But at least some of the damage, including holes in the walls and missing bits of toilet cistern, sounds as if it could well be the responsibility of the occupants.

Furthermore, the tenants who have been living there for the past few years acknowledge that they have not been paying rent. And, according to Mr Horomia, the deal was that they could use it rent-free provided they did the maintenance.

On any reasonable assessment, the tenants might be thought to have some slight responsibility for the state of the house. But it is Mr Horomia who is shamefacedly rushing to arrange repairs.

In part that is to save embarrassment to a Government which only a few days before was giving bad landlords a good thrashing.

But it is also because the whole thrust of the legislation is already directed against the landlord.

That is not to suggest bad landlords deserve any sympathy.

If Mr Gosche really believes heavier penalties for the baddies who fail to maintain their properties will make it easier for people to find suitable housing then he should certainly get tough (though the most likely outcome will be to reduce the amount of cheap rental accommodation on the market).

But isn't it about time the legislation took a more even-handed approach? All the evidence is that bad tenants are every bit as much of a problem as bad landlords.

There are about 300,000 rental properties in New Zealand but the Tenancy Tribunal gets only around 300 applications a year from tenants wanting repairs done.

Even allowing for tenants being reluctant to go to the tribunal, that does not suggest a huge problem.

By contrast, every year the tribunal gets about 24,000 applications from landlords seeking rent arrears and around 8000 applications wanting tenants to repair damage they have done.

That does point to there being quite a lot of irresponsible tenants.

If a landlord fails to comply with a tribunal order then there are, quite properly, penalties. But if a tenant similarly fails to comply with an order, nothing happens.

The landlord can, of course, bring a civil action to recover money owing but that is generally a costly and ineffectual exercise. It hardly seems a reasonable balance.

If Mr Gosche wants to see more low-cost, good-quality housing, he might find the best approach is taking steps to see that tenants also live up to their part of the bargain.

That way more investors might consider it worthwhile putting money into rental properties. And fewer good landlords might be driven out of business by ratbag tenants.