Wellington City. Photo / 123RF
By Jake McKee of RNZ
Wellington renters are becoming increasingly angry with the poor state of many of the capital's flats as the city heads into the pre-Christmas flat-hunting season.
Tenants are leaving unhealthy and expensive homes and finding they are having to pay even more to find a roof that does not leak and walls that are not furry.
Oscar, Lewis, William and Finn collectively pay $1000 a week to rent their four bedroom house in Mt Victoria.
The second-year university students are moving out in a few days and the ad for new tenants shows the rent is going up to $1200.
That means an even split on the rent would be $300 per person with bills on top.
Oscar thought a 20 per cent rent rise for new tenants was "criminal".
Why? The ceilings had been covered with mould and the rotten bathroom floor dropped away from the wall leaving a gap like an open window.
Lewis and William both had to move their beds away from the walls of their bedrooms because of leaks from the roof.
Lewis said a repair was made about two months ago but the leaks came back after a night of heavy rain.
He said it was not comfortable at all.
"I don't really have any money to buy more bed stuff and I hate the idea of leaving anything there, underneath water, that could get damaged."
Finn said they have wanted to tell prospective tenants to run away but they were "scared of what the housing companies can do to you".
He said the "Tenancy Tribunal's good ... but there's still this void of unknown, you know, rumours and stuff like that, blacklists".
The property's landlord has been contacted for comment.
Meanwhile, Oscar said renting in Wellington is tough.
He said the group already struggled to pay the rent, but they were paying even more in order to go live somewhere nicer.
Oscar said they had all worked part-time jobs throughout the year - "but that money dries up" - and had their parents supporting them.
"But that kind of sucks because if we could, I'm sure, all of us would not be asking our parents for money because we want to be independent adults," he said.
It was not just students who were struggling.
Ben works in the public sector and had lived in a three-bedroom Oriental Bay flat for three years.
But he and his flatmates would likely move out when the lease ended because the rent was going up next year from $680 per week to $1000.
Ben did not think any of their rooms were worth the rent rise, especially because a leak they had been asking to get fixed was only spreading.
He said a lot of people he knew were starting to question if it was "worth it living in Wellington when it's just so expensive for such a crappy place to live" particularly when housing quality was deteriorating "but you pay more and more every year".
The mortgage is just the start of it.