Another layer of enforcement will be added to the Tenancy Tribunal’s arsenal against bad landlords under a new section in the Residential Tenancies Act.
Section 109AA will empower the Tenancy Tribunal, in a limited range of circumstances, to order a landlord to use the services of a licensed residential property manager in any subsequent tenancies if he or she has committed two or more unlawful acts within the past five years in cases decided by the tribunal or District Court.
Unlawful acts by landlords include leaving a rental in a filthy state, not maintaining the property or addressing repairs, not having the required smoke alarms, issues around contaminated premises and issuing retaliatory termination notices or terminating tenancies without grounds.
Unlawful acts listed in the bill do not include honest mistakes by landlords, such as missing dates on paperwork.
The proposed change has surprised the Property Investors’ Federation. Vice-president Peter Lewis says he can see the philosophy behind it, but the federation believes making a landlord use a property manager for two transgressions in five years is punitive and not effective.
“We think it should be enforced if a landlord commits two unlawful acts within 12 months. It would sort out the really bad landlords.”
Lewis says the federation doesn’t think the proposed new clause is necessary. “Quite draconian penalties of up to $6,000 already exist for landlords who do the wrong thing and act badly.”
He says a landlord can inadvertently transgress twice in five years. “They are usually not intentionally doing the wrong thing, but may have just slipped up in attending to paperwork, for example.”
However, Residential Property Managers Association (RPMA) council member Ryan Weir says having a long rolling period between transgressions means if landlords carried out an unlawful act three or four years previously, it will come back to haunt them if they make another mistake.
Weir says good landlords feel they are tarnished by recidivist bad landlords. “This will give delinquent landlords a reason to improve their behaviour or regulated property management will be forced on them. It will help get rid of the cowboys and make it difficult for them to carry on treating tenants badly.”
Exemptions
The proposed new clause exempts Kāinga Ora and registered community housing providers from the penalty.
Lewis is disappointed. “Kāinga Ora has a bad reputation for managing tenants who cause problems in its complexes and also for home owners in the vicinity. It seems inequitable that it is exempt. We have many horror stories about bad management from Kāinga Ora. The government frequently makes changes to the country’s laws but exempts its own departments from having to obey them.”
He says the original Residential Tenancies Act 1986 included what was then Housing New Zealand. Since then, changes to the Act have exempted Kāinga Ora.
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