Nationals tenancy law changes unfair and poorly timed

National’s plans to reverse changes to residential tenancy laws show a lack of balance and very poor timing.

“It's odd that at a time when more and more people are entering the rental property market the Government should decide to remove reforms aimed at redressing some of the power imbalance between landlords and tenants,” Green Party Housing Spokesperson Sue Bradford said.

“For example, Housing Minister Phil Heatley has said that National opposes the payment of professional tenant advocates at Tenancy Tribunal hearings, will not cap tenant liability for damage that is not their fault, and will reverse a change that would have banned real estate agents from charging letting fees to tenants.

The Green Party supported all these reforms when Labour announced them last year, and it is disappointing that National has decided not to go ahead with them when it brings the Residential Tenancies Bill (No 2) back to Parliament shortly, Ms Bradford said.

“National talks a lot about fairness and balance, but what's fair about removing measures that bring a lot more balance into the system?”

“Who bears financial responsibility for damages can be a contentious issue as a group of Dunedin students found out in a case where they were all held liable for a kitchen fire accidentally started by only one of them.

“Corporate landlords are likely to be represented at Tribunal hearings by a tenancy manager advocate who knows the legislation well and is a trained professional, while tenants with no knowledge of the law, and who often have language or literacy difficulties, have to represent themselves.

“This issue affects many New Zealanders as there were 24,297 tenancy tribunal hearings held in the 2006/2007 years.

“And many tenants just give up and don’t even attend hearings.

“The playing field would be a lot more level if the tenants could access professional advocacy help at hearings.”