Why were the owners of New Zealand’s 588,700 rental properties not consulted on draconian proposals on tenancy law and extra housing standards when Tenancy Services holds the contact details of every owner who has lodged a bond, Tenancies War spokesman Mike Butler said today.

The submission period for proposed changes to tenancy law and extra standards for rental property ended yesterday.

Tenancy law proposals would prevent owners from ending tenancies contractually, ban fixed-term tenancies, give tenants the right to modify a property, allow tenants to keep pets as of right, and enable Government officials to enter boarding houses at any time.

Extra standards for rental property may require fixed heating in every room, additional insulation beyond current requirements, extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms, installation of polythene sheets under floors, and draught-stopping tape around windows and doors.

“The Government has the ability to notify owners directly but this time notification was limited to a few posts circulated around social media”, Mr Butler said.

“Is the office of Housing Minister Phil Twyford dysfunctional to the extent that contacting owners was never considered, or was the failure-to-notify a plot to minimise owner submissions and encourage feedback from tenants? he said.

Anyone who spent the several hours required to complete the online questionnaire about proposed tenancy reforms would see that the proposals would make an already biased-against-owners Residential Tenancies Act even more steeply biased against owners, Mr Butler said.

“Some questions were so poorly phrased that a rational response was not possible”, Mr Butler said.

Anyone who completed the online questionnaire about the proposed extra standards would realise that the Housing Minister is trying to solve a problem that largely does not exist.

The questions skirt around the major issue, the elephant in the room, which is a shortage of affordable housing, both own-your-own and rental, Mr Butler said.

The group Stop the War on Tenancies aims to empower both owners and tenants in the face of ongoing Government ineptitude with housing.

ends

© Scoop Media