Rental shortage leads to drop in tribunal cases

Simon Martin.

Fewer cases are being brought to the Tauranga Tenancy Tribunal as the city's rental shortage allows landlords to hand-pick tenants.

New figures show that 1147 complaints were filed with the Tauranga tribunal last year. There have been more than 1200 complaints every other year.

In 2014, landlords made 1038 of the complaints and tenants made 109. Most complaints related to rent arrears or termination breaches.

Tauranga Rentals owner Dan Lusby told the Bay of Plenty Times there had been a noticeable drop in tribunal cases.

Ross Stanway keeps a close eye on rent arrears.

"The way the market has been in Tauranga where there is a lot more demand for properties, we can be a lot more picky with the tenants we put in places. Tenants are behaving more because it's harder to get houses."

Mr Lusby said the main problems landlords faced were rent arrears and his agency worked with tenants to ensure they understood rent was to be paid each week.

"We try to educate them from day one to pay their rent and we will look after them It doesn't happen that often and probably not as often as it used to ..."

Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin said the company had seen a huge drop in the number of problems with tenants.

"The amount of vacancies we've got are low and rent arrears are almost non-existent. Part of it is because there's been a lot of people wanting to rent homes, we can choose a really good tenant for our properties ..."

There's such high demand for rental properties that they worry they'll end up having to leave and then they won't find anywhere else.

Tenants Protection Asssociation's Helen Gatonyi

Eves and Bayleys Real Estate chief executive Ross Stanway said rent arrears were the most common cases landlords brought to the tribunal. "That's something that we in the property management world keep a very, very close eye on and we have systems to try and address them at a very early stage."

Mr Stanway said professional property managers were in the business for the landlords so would make sure any issues such as unpaid rent were quickly fixed.

Tenants Protection Association manager Helen Gatonyi believed the national drop in complaints was due to more cases being fast-tracked through mediation. "If the issues are being resolved that way, it's a good thing," she said.

"If a tenant does get behind on rent and ends up at the tribunal, it goes on their record and they find it very hard to get into the rental market again."

Ms Gatonyi was not surprised most complaints were from landlords.

"We hear of a lot of tenants that have problems with the property they're in but they don't want to go to the tribunal about it.

"There's such high demand for rental properties that they worry they'll end up having to leave and then they won't find anywhere else."