Value of Waikato Kāinga Ora tenants’ rent arrears revealed

Monday, 17 February 2025

Kāinga Ora said around 700 of its 4875 Waikato tenants owe the agency money.

Five Waikato Kāinga Ora tenants owe $127,000 in rent between them, with the biggest single debt at $33,000.

Across the region, tenants are $1.58m behind on payments, as Kāinga Ora takes a harder line on those who aren’t keeping up. That includes faster repayment plans for the 2000 tenants nationwide who owe more than 12 weeks of rent.

Even so, the public housing landlord expects to forgive hundreds of thousands of what Waikato tenants owe, according to data the Waikato Times obtained under the Official Information Act.

Kāinga Ora’s Waikato regional director, Mark Rawson, told the Waikato Times that the region has 4875 Kāinga Ora tenants, and “about 700 have rent debt”.

Kāinga Ora’s Waikato regional director, Mark Rawson, says there are 214 tenants in the region who owe more than 12 weeks of rent (file photo).

That equates to just over 14% of tenants in the region.

The largest single sum owed stood at $33,173.

The second-largest sum is $25,181, followed by $25,094, $23,337 and $20,368.

Rawson said of the Waikato tenants with rent debt, 214 owed more than 12 weeks’ worth.

“These tenants are potentially eligible to receive a reduction in what they owe, under our newly announced approach to rent debt,” he said.

“In the Waikato region we expect to forgive up to $851,122 of what those tenants owe.”

Kāinga Ora it expects to forgive up to $851,122 of what tenants owe (file photo).

Kāinga Ora’s board has decided 12 weeks’ rent was the maximum amount that a tenant could realistically repay.

Part of their debt could be forgiven if they made genuine attempts to get back on track with repayments.

Most Kāinga Ora tenants pay income-related rent, which is set by the Ministry of Social Development and reviewed each year. Typically a Kāinga Ora tenant will pay no more than 25% of their income in rent.

The Government recently released a “turnaround plan” for Kāinga Ora. However, the agency said work on its rent arrears policy predated that, having begun more than a year ago.

Kainga Ora Chief Executive Matt Crockett said the agency would be ‘drawing a line on how patient we can be’.

Rawson said the agency had, over the last year, been working with tenants to reduce their rent debt.

“This has resulted in the total amount owed by tenants in the Waikato region dropping from $1.84 million in January 2024, to $1.58 million at the start of this year.”

Nationwide, the agency said around 90% of tenants are up to date with their rent, but at the end of January around 7500 tenants owed a combined $16.1m.

The new approach came into effect on February 11 and Kāinga Ora chief Matt Crocket said when announcing it that they wanted the amount of money owed to the agency to fall faster.

“Over the past 12 months, our frontline teams have been working with tenants to reduce their rent debt. This has resulted in total rent debt falling from $21.6 million in January 2024 to $16.1 million at the same time this year.

“But we want the amount owed to fall faster and to make sure we keep rent debt down in the future. So we are making changes as part of the broader reset of Kāinga Ora to address this.

“We’re going to reduce debt by taking a firmer approach with tenants who are behind on their rent. We will be fair and reasonable – but rent must be paid,” he said.

“We will continue to support households who fall on hard times but are making genuine attempts to get back on track with their rent. We’re a social housing landlord so that’s the right thing to do.

“But, through our new rent debt policy, we are drawing a line on how patient we can be. We don’t want to end tenancies, but we will if tenants are not meeting their obligations to reduce their rent debt, are skipping rent payments or refusing to work with us.”