Sorting out the rental bogyman

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX AND SIMON HENDERY

Residential landlords - are they heartless exploiters of the needy or noble providers of a social service?

The morals and motivations driving the home rental business have been in the spotlight this week.

As the Government unveiled a proposal to crack down on bad landlords, it emerged that a property managed by one of its own ministers, Parekura Horomia, had been declared unfit by the Gisborne District Council.

Then Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt found himself under attack for offering a woman free accommodation in a dilapidated property with the advice: "There are no keys, so just climb in through the window."

Days earlier, Housing Minister Mark Gosche announced that the Government was considering toughening up the Residential Tenancies Act to include hefty penalties for landlords who failed to comply with work orders under the legislation.

According to Monte Cecilia House manager Elaine Lolesio, substandard housing is rife across Auckland and many families are living in slum conditions because landlords can get away with it.

She says the Monte Cecilia House Trust has tried to help people by talking to landlords about the problem, only to have the tenants evicted.

"The landlords don't even worry about it. They say that for every person who challenges them about the house, and who they then evict, there are 10 or 20 more people who would happily live in the same conditions."

But the president of the Auckland Property Investors Association, Andrew King, says most landlords keep their properties well maintained because it is in their interest to do so.

"By not doing so they end up with larger repair bills, make the property difficult to let and do not maximise the achievable rental price for the property.

"That is why, out of approximately 300,000 rental properties in New Zealand, there are only 300 applications to the Tenancy Tribunal every year from tenants wanting landlords to conduct repairs."

This week the Herald visited four homes being advertised for rent at $200 a week, a price tag that Mrs Lolesio says is manageable for a lot of families but is not often associated with comfortable housing. All were basic three-bedroom houses that were available for new tenants to move into immediately.

Of the four, only one - in Glen Eden - was unpleasant. It was damp and dark, the carpet felt wet in patches, a layer of grime covered the bathroom and the shower curtain had mold growing along the edges.

The property's lawn was unkempt and a neighbouring property - not separated by fencing - looked no better. Back inside, dirty, upturned furniture lay around the rooms and there was a smell of dog hair.

Two of the houses visited were in Manurewa. Both were weatherboard, with carpet throughout and heavy curtains. One had been recently repainted.

Both had tidy, clean kitchens and bathrooms. The bedrooms, with the exception of the main bedroom, were very small. Both had tidy large sections that were mostly fenced off.

At the fourth property, in New Lynn, minor renovations were under way to fix the kitchen cupboards, the oven and the hallway floor. The bathroom needed painting and the shower was dark and smelled musty. The rooms were very small but, overall, the three properties were of a reasonable standard.

Mrs Lolesio says many of the families who end up at Monte Cecilia House - a Hillsborough homestead that has been temporary home to needy families for 20 years - have been looking for affordable housing but finding only squalor.

She says housing priced at around $250 a week is usually adequate, but less than that is likely to be "hardly suitable, if not downright slums."

She describes the Government's proposal to crack down on substandard housing as fantastic but a long time coming.

But Mr King says although 60 per cent of applications to the Tenancy Tribunal come from landlords seeking rent owing, there are no penalties for tenants who do not comply with orders to pay up.

"The Government should look at addressing this inequity as a higher priority than extending penalties to a few bad landlords."