Green Party bids to scrap leasing fees and set limit to rent increases

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei is one of three MPs to have their private members bill drawn from today's ballot. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Renters would no longer pay leasing fees and rent increases would be limited to once a year under legislation that will go before Parliament.

Three members' bills have been been drawn from the ballot which decides which bills are considered by Parliament.

They include Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei's Residential Tenancies (Safe and Secure Rentals) Amendment Bill, which would create minimum standards for rentals and strengthen tenant rights.

That would include minimum standards for warmth and dryness, scrap leasing fees, and set a default of three years for fixed-term tenancies on the standard tenancy form.

Landlords would no longer be able to give a reduced notice period of 42 days if they want to sell the property, with the standard 90-day notice period restored.

Rent increases would be limited to one a year, and a formula for calculating any future rent increase would be included in tenancy agreement forms.

Very few Opposition MPs bills make it into law but their selection allows the issue to be debated in a first reading.

Turei's bill is more wide-ranging than Labour leader Andrew Little's Healthy Homes Bill, which passed its first reading in May and sets minimum heating and insulation standards for rental homes.

Also drawn from today's ballot was New Zealand First MP Mahesh Bindra's Land Transfer (Foreign Ownership of Land Register) Amendment Bill, which would set-up a publicly-available register of all foreign-owned New Zealand land.

National list MP Nuk Korako had his bill drawn, which would amend the law so that airports would have more flexibility in how they advertise lost property disposals.

Currently the law specifies adverts need to be placed in newspapers. This would be changed to advertising in what is deemed a "fair and reasonable" manner.