Would Muller Undo Labour’s Rental Property Errors?

25 May 2020, 12:39 by Stop the War on Tenancies

Since any promises made by former National Party leader Simon Bridges are effectively void, the new leader, Todd Muller, should tell New Zealand’s 290,000 residential rental property owners whether he supports Labour's disastrous experiments or whether he intends to restore some sanity to the sector.

Currently, the sector remains frozen under the Covid-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Act which over-rode previous tenancy termination agreements, extended the period of allowed unpaid rent from 21 days to 60 days, and imposed a $6500 fine on any owners who put a step wrong.

During the lockdown, the Government continued pushing through changes to the Residential Tenancies Act that:

1. Require 118 days of unpaid rent before the Tenancy Tribunal may end a tenancy because of unpaid rent. Currently, 21 days’ arrears are sufficient to end a tenancy.

2. Require three disturbances in three months before the Tenancy Tribunal could end a tenancy because of anti-social behaviour.

3. Remove a property owner’s contractual right to end a tenancy – the so-called 90-day no-reason termination.

Rental property owners would like to know whether, before the election, a National Party under Mr Muller would vote against those amendments.

We are not the only group to say that the current Government’s housing policies have been a rolling maul of incompetence.

1. KiwiBuild promised 100,000 new homes in a decade yet in three years was only able to deliver 1535 houses.

2. The waiting list for state houses reached a whopping 16,309 applicants by March 31 this year, more than double the number when the coalition government was formed in 2017.

3. Changed tax rules hit on March 31 this year. This ring-fencing of rental property losses could tip a further 116,000 negatively geared owners out of the sector, according to documents obtained under the Official Information Act.

4. Expensive and poorly conceived regulations on rental properties presented as guaranteeing a “healthy home” brought a regime of spot checks, narking, and massive fines on owners. This will drive more out of the sector once they take effect in the middle of next year.

If Mr Muller becomes Prime Minister, would he:

1. Work with the private sector to build homes.

2. Work with rather than against rental property owners to increase the supply of housing.

3. Revisit the so-called “healthy homes” regulations as his predecessor promised. The regulations should be changed from rules that carry substantial penalties to recommendations. The standards should also be widened to include other methods to reach the recommended goals (such as shower domes instead of extractor fans). Standards for housing are nothing new and have existed here since 1947 under the Housing Improvement Regulations.

Stop the War on Tenancies is a group that since October 2018 has been highlighting the failures of successive governments while creating rental property policy and law.