Look at the $484k state of this mess

Rotorua's state housing tenants are the worst in the country when it comes to vandalism and maintenance of properties.

Repair work on Housing New Zealand homes in the city has gone from costing $199,916 to $484,413 in the past year.

The 142 per cent increase compares to the national average which has seen a 40 per cent increase to $21 million.

One Rotorua property, waiting for repairs in Fordlands' Harold Cres, has been vacated with rubbish, including mattresses and broken beer bottles, strewn around the back yard.

At least 11 windows in the brick three-bedroom home have been broken and the front door is still boarded up after someone ripped it off its hinges. Discarded clothing lay on the concrete floor of the newly-built garage.

Rotorua beneficiaries advocate Paul Blair blamed the problem on society as a whole and how it dealt with poverty.

"Look we have to stop this shaming and blaming. Stop personalising it. We have deep poverty entrenched in Rotorua and it goes back a long, long way," he said.

Until landlords, and society, changed attitudes about the poor and disfranchised in its communities, the problem would remain, Mr Blair said.

"We have to stop pointing the finger and look at what the drivers are behind bad behaviour. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out what the underlying causes are. It's all about the destruction of whanau, the destruction of iwi and the ability of people to make ends meet," he said.

National Party housing spokesman Phil Heatley said Rotorua's statistics were shocking.

"Rotorua tenants are the worst in the country by a country mile," he said.

"They should be made to pay for the damage and shipped out because there are thousands of needy families on waiting lists wanting a home. I'm sure they would appreciate it more." Housing NZ national spokeswoman Marie Winfield said of the money spent on damages in the past year, more then $7 million was recoverable from tenants.

Tenants are required to pay for cleaning up vacated properties and windows broken during the tenancy, plus intentional damage.

The amount spent in the last year included repairs all landlords were required to carry out, Mrs Winfield said.

"This is work carried out on properties once they have been vacated to bring them up to a consistent standard for re-letting.

"These costs are common in any property management business, and as they are not caused intentionally or by carelessness, cannot be charged to the tenant," she said.

These including mowing lawns, replacing shower curtains, clearing drains, replacing locks, carpet cleaning and re-polishing floorboards or vinyl flooring.

Twice yearly all Housing NZ properties are inspected.

"Tenants known to have damaged their property are managed more rigorously," she said.

Higher costs in the past year were mainly caused by the department bringing forward planned maintenance programmes, Mrs Winfield said.

In addition, contractors rates have also increased.

Evicting tenants is the last thing the agency wants to do.

"Housing New Zealand does not tolerate damage to its properties and tenants who repeatedly damage their properties and do not repay the cost of damages to their property will be evicted.

"[We have] social responsibilities and therefore eviction is a last resort.

"We will always seek to work with tenants to rectify the problem," she said.

Debt collectors are used to chase errant payers.