'Why should the landlord pick up the tab, time and time again?'

Wednesday, 9 May 2018

Hollie Joss: 'It's becoming social housing when you are not making money.'

A property manager says tenants are being allowed to trash houses, and a law change designed to help is being watered down too much to make a difference.

Since the Court of Appeal ruled in 2016 that a tenant did not have to pay for damage to a property after they left a pot of oil on the stove and it caught fire, landlords have struggled to get tenants to pay for any accidental damage.

The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill will change that.

It originally proposed that tenants should be liable for an amount equal to four weeks' rent, or the landlord's excess – whichever was lower, per incident of careless damage.

*** [Landlords' fear and loathing of the NZ rental market

](https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/101215231/landlords-fear-and-loathing-of-the-new-zealand-rental-market)***** Punished for being a parent and a renter

Even watered down, the amendment is an improvement on the current situation, Andrew King says.

* Why is NZ's rental market all about making money?**

But the select committee considering the bill has suggested removing the 'per incident' directive.

It is common for one insurance claim to cover several 'incidents' – such as damage to carpet in several rooms of a house, or a fire that damages the house and its contents, triggering claims on each policy.

The Tenancy Tribunal said the tenant did not need to pay to repair this hole in the ceiling.

Property manager Hollie Joss said she dealt with one case in which a tenant's dog urinated on the carpet. The insurance assessor said each mark was a separate insurance incident, and would attract its own excess.

With six or seven spots in each room, each with a $250 excess, that added up to a bill for the landlords of $6000. To replace the carpet was only $2000.

'The tenant put a hole in the dining room ceiling which they attempted to repair by plastering, they left the plaster raw without sanding it back or painting, the adjudicator said 'I am sure the tenants didn't intentionally put the hole in the ceiling and they attempted to repair it'.'

Joss said it had become hard for landlords to protect their properties. 'Tenants are getting away with trashing houses and the Tenancy Tribunal doesn't care because it's 'not intentional'.'

She said when people were in arrears on their rent, their bond money was usually gone, anyway.

New Zealand Property Investors Federation executive officer Andrew King said, even if the 'per incident' wording was removed, the new rule would be an improvement on the current situation.

He said he hoped the tribunal would start operating in the spirit of the changes, even before the law was passed.

Joss said some landlords had sold their properties because it had become too much to deal with. Many were topping up the mortgage on their properties and to have to handle damage on top of that was too much, she said,

'Why do the government need to put a limit on what we can charge tenants, surely if they caused the damage they should pay for it, end of story?

'Why should the landlord pick up the tab, time and time again, so many landlords are selling up, it's becoming social housing when you are not making money.

'All our landlords are just mums and dads saving for their retirement but if it's costing them money they are better putting their cash in the bank and that will have a knock-on effect of a housing shortage for tenants as there are fewer rentals.'