Disadvantaged tenants

I refer to the front page story (October 7) ‘‘Creek housing crisis’’.

Vulnerable members of the Porirua community clearly need assistance and information, yet Kapi-Mana News instead broadcast to its readership disinformation and incorrect legal advice sanctioned by a city councillor taking advantage of a photo opportunity.

Apparently, councillor Murrell’s Real Estate Institute of New Zealand membership and recreational driving trips around numerous Creek properties qualify him to issue legal advice to those properties affected by rotting windows, rusty water running down the sides, and a plywood-covered hole in the outer wall: ‘‘There is no requirement [that landlords] have to do anything.’’

Murrell’s words serve only to disempower community members and discourage them from seeking correct advice from qualified professionals.

Kapi-Mana News owed it to these individuals to take some initiative to publish information for ‘‘the worst suffers [who are] immigrants moving to Porirua and not knowing their rights’’.

Here are two free resources Kapi-Mana could have noted:

The Whiteria Community Law

Editor’s note: We ran a legal column dealing with the Tenancy Tribunal on Sept 23. A column on tenants’ rights will run shortly.