The Government’s rental review has received a mixed response from renter advocates and property owners, and the proposal to end no-fault evictions has been a sticking point.
Under the current law, property owners need to give 90 days notice but not a specific reason for ending a rental agreement. That's not fair to families, especially students who are forced to start at new schools because they’ve been forced into a new district, Kate Day of Renters United told TVNZ 1's Breakfast today
"While renting used to be something that was temporary, more and more New Zealanders are spending longer – even lifetimes – in rental homes," she said. "And that means we need laws that provide genuine security and stability.
"We need to provide families, and all renters in fact, with genuine opportunity to put down roots."
Most landlords also want long-term renters, said Andrew King of New Zealand Property Investors' Federation. But no-fault evictions are crucial to getting rid of bad apple tenants, he responded.
"It's been portrayed as landlords just willy-nilly kicking people out of the home. There's always a cause – it's just one that you can't actually prove," he told Breakfast.
"For instance, if there's anti-social behaviour going on from the tenant, if they're annoying neighbours or other tenants, you need proof in the tenancy tribunal to do that.
"But often the neighbours and the other tenants are not willing to write something down to say what's going on, so you have no proof to do it.
"The 90-day notice is the only thing you can actually use to end that tenancy and help those (other) tenants and neighbours."
Mr King cited a recent treasury study that shows the average tenancy today is two years and three months, a year more than it was in 1995.
"The churn isn't actually there anymore," he said.
Nearly 600,000 households are estimated to live in rental homes. (Source: Other)
In addition to the no-fault evictions, the Government has proposed limiting rent increases to one a year and more relaxed rules around pets. While bad landlords are a minority, our renting laws are archaic, officials have said.
"We want to make life better for renters because at the moment it's a miserable and pretty punishing existence for many of them," Housing Minister Phil Twyford said. "It's got to be better than this."
There is room for compromise, Mr King said today.
In a "dream scenario", property owners would be eligible for mortgage funding at Government interest rates in exchange for stricter rules around long-term tenancies, he said.
Ms Day, however, said the scenario doesn"t seem especially realistic.
"I don’t think government handouts for landlords is really the solution here," she said.
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