How new rental laws aim to change the way we live

1.5 million NZers live in rental homes. Photo / file

Each week The Front Page takes you behind the scenes of the biggest story from the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB. Today it's the proposed changes to fix the homes we live in. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Rental property law is a bone of contention currently, with proposed changes to how the system works.

It could have a huge impact on people's lives, as there's about 600,000 rental homes in New Zealand, and 1.5 million of us live in them.

The Government has announced a raft of possible changes, which if passed would be the biggest changes to tenancy laws since 1986.

Landlords are nervous, and particularly pushing back on the idea of scrapping "no-cause terminations" - the ability to tell tenants they need to leave without giving a reason.

But it's not just rentals, there are also problems with our housing stock more generally. The latest Stats NZ data shows mould is a problem in more than a third of NZ homes.

It is more prevalent in rental homes than owner-occupied.

For the latest Front Page podcast I talked to Herald journalists Anne Gibson and Ben Leahy.

We discussed what the debated changes would mean for New Zealanders, if the tenancy tribunal needs more teeth, and how to make sure housing isn't hurting our health.

For the interviews, listen to the podcast here.

If you have questions about Herald investigations, or want to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Frances Cook on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

You can subscribe to this podcast on the podcast apps, including iHeartRadio here, Apple podcasts here, Spotify here, and Google podcasts here.