As winter's cold and damp begins to bite, Auckland's renters have far more reason than most to feel disgruntled. Too many of them, and their children, are housed in conditions so substandard that they are at risk of constant respiratory illnesses and infections. They are at the wrong end of a market that combines soaring prices with inadequate tenant protection. Worst of all, their situation will deteriorate further unless the Government responds with the required urgency. It is, unfortunately, showing scant evidence of doing so.
Housing Minister Nick Smith will say only that the Government "doesn't accept that renting is as good as it gets for average New Zealand families". To that massive understatement, he adds that he is "considering improvements to tenancy law". As much is welcome. The 50,000 dispute resolution applications from central Auckland tenancies over the past three years tell their own story of unscrupulous landlords and letting agencies acting with impunity. This has extended as far as demands for illegal application fees.
Stronger and more immediate recourse for tenants should eradicate such practices. But the Government needs also to address the condition of houses offered for rent. Many are very badly maintained, belying the high prices demanded. And those prices are bound to become even more extravagant as landlords seek to recoup the costs of the Reserve Bank's looming 30 per cent deposit requirement on mortgages and the Government's capital gains tax.
It is time to impose some obligations on those offering homes for rent. The most obvious course is the warrant-of-fitness scheme suggested by the Children's Commissioner's expert advisory group on child poverty. Well over a year ago, the Government announced it would test this concept with 500 state houses. Since then, nothing has transpired except for its rejection of Labour Party legislation along similar lines.
The Government's reasoning was unconvincing. Regulations that set standards for rental housing could be readily introduced. And in such buoyant conditions, landlords would be unlikely to remove their houses from the market because they considered it too expensive to upgrade.
