Kāinga Ora resident must start repaying $3600 rent bill or lose the house - Tenancy Tribunal

Monday, 3 March 2025

An example of Kāinga Ora’s tougher rent arrears stance has played out in a Hamilton Tenancy Tribunal case.

The promised harder line on rent arrears from state housing agency Kāinga Ora appears to have kicked in - just ask Hamilton resident Selena Forbes.

Forbes has been told by the Tenancy Tribunal her rent arrears of $3574.99 for a Nawton home must be paid off via a weekly payment of $180, or she will face eviction.

“If the tenant fails to pay rent and rent arrears within two working days of the due dates… the tenancy will terminate and the landlord will have immediate possession of the premises”.

It comes amid a continued push by Kāinga Ora to get its overdue rent bill down, including a plan in which tenants who owe more than 12 weeks can have some forgiven in exchange for starting a payment plan.

The Nawton Tenancy Tribunal ruling reveals Forbes had to make the first $180 payment on January 30, “continuing until the debt is paid”.

Kāinga Ora applied for a termination of the tenancy, rent arrears and a bond refund, it noted.

However, “the landlord wants to offer the tenant an opportunity to repay the debt to avoid immediate termination”.

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

“The tenant is motivated to grasp this opportunity,” the ruling said.

It noted that while there had been “historic problems with rent payments by the tenant”, the Tribunal also said it was “satisfied the tenant should have the opportunity to pay the debt”.

The ruling also noted that Kāinga Ora made “what appears to be a blanket request for tenant name suppression”.

“There were no specific reasons provided for this request apart from a belief ‘the privacy of our tenant outweighs the public interest in this matter”.

“Respectfully, the public interest in orders where termination by order is a possibility being available (as is the default) is such that some special reason should exist for any order of tenant suppression.

“No suppression order is given.”

The extent of rent arrears owed to the agency across the region was revealed by the Waikato Times earlier in February, after filing an Official Information Act request.

That data revealed just 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.

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”.

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