The fight isn't over for tenants of Napier City council-owned flats- the council kept their flats, but they may face large rent increases. Photo / Paul Taylor
The fight isn't over for tenants of Napier City council-owned flats- the council kept their flats, but they may face large rent increases. Photo / Paul Taylor
Residents of the council-owned flats in Napier and the Napier Housing Coalition claim there is lack of clarity from the council about large proposed rent-increases.
According to information provided to tenants by Napier City Council,a new rent formula will be applied to new tenancies from September 2022 while current tenants will still have an annual increase under the current policy.
"The new rent formula for current tenants will be applied from 1 July 2023, with the increase effective from September 2023. Rent amounts will be reviewed as part of the Long Term Plan process (every three years)," a NCC spokesperson said.
In a summary of the decision to keep the flats published by NCC and distributed to tenants and online, it said based on current figures they can estimate a single person in a one-bedroom retirement village flat could pay about $265 per week.
The summary said the exact figures will be calculated "well ahead" of the 2023 rent increase.
A NCC spokesperson said the figures were still being worked through and would be published once they are finalised.
"These are based on the cost recovery basis the Council has adopted. The rent amounts will still be well below market rent," the spokesperson said.
Napier Housing Coalition spokesperson Dawn Bedingfield said the group was very concerned for the tenants, who had contacted them in large numbers due to stress over potentially large rent hikes.
She said the indication that rent could be $265 per week for a 37 square metre one bedroom flat meant an increase of over 100 per cent for some tenants.
"We assume this is after the 20 per cent subsidy from the ratepayers and is a rent rise of over 100 per cent the actual tenant will have to find each week, leaving a single pensioner with less than 50 per cent of their benefit over for food, electricity medical costs and other expenditures."
The Napier Housing Coalition advocates for the tenants of the council-owned flats in Napier and believe the council could be informing them better. Photo / Warren Buckland
She said the group thought it was 'unusual' and possibly inappropriate to send letters out containing a figure so soon when the exact amounts were yet to be worked out.
"The tenants had only a few days earlier received the news their homes would not be sold after years of newsletters reminding them of the possibility which has taken its toll on many and then to be hit with this news has been too much for those struggling with the high costs of living as it is."
Pene Johnstone, accountant and supporter of the Napier Housing Coalition said it was a mistake to publish the $265 figure.
"If it is subject to change, why did you tell the tenants that? You don't tell them something that is not going to happen, I think that is a bit mean," Johnstone said.
She agreed with Bedingfield that councillors should be proactive in hearing and understanding tenants concerns and clarifying how the rent increase will be calculated.
Bedingfield said a suggestion in NCC correspondence that tenants could qualify for an accommodation supplement through the Ministry of Social Development website was "unhelpful" for elderly tenants and those without computers.
"Suggesting something like this to a 90-year-old is totally without much thought."
She said her group intends to hold accommodation supplement information days in each village next year to answer tenants questions when they receive notification of the rent payable.