‘I’m living in the slums,’ says tenant
Rebecca lives in a block of flats in Richmond that were originally built for orchard workers.
The rooms are damp, draughty and dark. And ‘‘filthy’’, Rebecca says, despite endless cleaning.
In the bathroom, the ceiling sags, and a piece of flannelette fabric has been used to patch a hole in the shower. There’s a gap above the door frame where the bathroom meets the living room, through which you can see the sky.
The hot water tap in the kitchen doesn’t work, so Rebecca uses an old Zip water heater, or fills buckets with hot water in the laundry sink, where ants and bugs sometimes crawl out of the tap, she says.
She pays $280 a week for the twobedroom home, which she says is freezing and damp in the winter. She has developed asthma while living in the property, she says.
‘‘I have to go outside to warm up, even when there’s frost on the ground.’’
The property is owned by Stephen Field, who has converted a building on the rural property into flats, originally for orchard workers. Field also owns the Trade Me ‘‘shack’’, in the Nelson city suburb of Toi Toi, which was featured in The Nelson Mail in March. It is managed by Annabel Black, who runs Nelson-based Black’s Property Management.
When complaints to Black about the property’s condition went unanswered, Rebecca went to Field, who she described as ‘‘difficult’’.
Recently, Field insulated the properties himself, using conventional insulation as well as ‘‘dag wool’’, she said. Pictures sent to the Mail show sacks of dirty wool that Rebecca says was installed in a neighbouring flat.
‘‘I told him, I’m living in the slums. He told me that he needs to look after what makes him money.’’
The obvious solution is to leave the dilapidated property. But it’s not so simple when you’re a beneficiary in a competitive rental market, Rebecca says.
‘‘I’ve been on housing list for six to seven months, but there’s nothing out there. If I’m in this situation, there’s a lot more people in this situation.’’
Rebecca has twice met Black at the Tenancy Tribunal, appealing a 90-day eviction order, and then pursuing compensation for the state of the property.
In June, Black was ordered to pay Rebecca $1560 by an adjudicator who compensated her for the loss of hot water in the kitchen, and the condition of the house.
‘‘Not being water or airtight will more than likely have had a broader impact on the tenant’s quality of living in the premise, and I have seen nothing from the landlord that convinces me otherwise, nor that these issues were not present at the commencement of the tenancy,’’ the ruling said.
The ruling also stated that the tenant was ‘‘caught in a void’’ between Black and Field, ‘‘meaning she was required to persevere to get some issues attended to, at times causing unnecessary stress, delay, and some question around actual resolution. Such needs will have impacted her quiet enjoyment’’.
At the time of publication, Black had not paid her tenant the compensation.
Black did not reply to texts, phone calls or emails from the Mail. She visited the Mail office to make a complaint about the reporter’s conduct, but left without speaking to anyone when a reporter and editor tried to speak with her.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has confirmed that Black is under investigation by its Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT), following two complaints to the team.
Another former tenant of Black’s, Erika Heschl, rented a property in Picton from a company that later engaged Black’s Property Management.
‘‘I’ve never seen a worse place,’’ she said. ‘‘It took me 100 hours to get it clean, everything was broken, none of the appliances were working, there were no smoke alarms.’’
When she emailed Black to complain, the property manager phoned her, she said. At first, Heschl, who is not a native English speaker, struggled to understand her.
‘‘Annabel called me. I was busy and she was talking so fast, I asked her to tell me who she was. And she said, ‘You bitch, shut up when I’m talking’. I hung up.’’
A Tenancy Tribunal ruling instructed Black to pay her tenant $500 as compensation for the unclean state of the property and the removal of some of the furniture.
Heschl said she believed Black should not be allowed to operate.
Sandy Pearce dealt with Black when she acted as guarantor for her son’s Nelson rental property, which she said was cold and damp.
‘‘It was disgusting, absolutely disgusting,’’ Pearce said. ‘‘There was mould everywhere. When it rained, water would go straight into the basement bedroom.’’
Glass tiles fell into the bath while her son’s 5-year-old daughter was in there, she said. ‘‘We would ask [Black] for it to be fixed, and she would say no.’’
At the Tenancy Tribunal, the tenants were ordered to pay $386 for rubbish removal and ending the tenancy early.
Black’s claims against her tenant for the cost of repairing the broken glass in a door, cleaning, a letting fee and a filing fee were all dismissed.
Landlord Stephen Field said his properties met all the updated requirements.
He said he had tried to arrange
insulation a year ago through a local energy company, but it had said it couldn’t do the job. He had insulated the properties himself, he said, using conventional insulation and sacks of dag wool from his farm.
‘‘The people whose flat I did it for said they only need one heater now.
‘‘They’ve used [wool] overseas for hundreds of years. Vikings have used it.’’
As for other problems in Rebecca’s property, they were Black’s responsibility, Field said. ‘‘I’ve got [Black] running the place.’’
He denied that his properties were dilapidated.
‘‘I can’t see anything wrong with it. There have been people in it since 1977, when it was first built, and I haven’t had any problems.’’
‘‘People have nowhere to live – I’m trying to help people. We’re not asking them to stay – they can go somewhere else.’’
An MBIE spokeswoman said fleece wool could be used for insulation. ‘‘However, it needs to be clean and meet the required standard. An insulation product can only perform effectively and meet compliance requirements if it is installed correctly without tucks, compression, sagging or gaps.’’
Nelson Labour Party Policy Council chair and housing advocate Rachel Boyack said Black’s conduct was an example of why property managers should be regulated.
‘‘There’s no-one overseeing what [property managers] do. If you were in another industry related to people’s lives, you would be regulated. This is your home – it impacts on your heath.’’
Boyack said landlords had told her that they wanted the industry regulated.
‘‘We have got a lot of good landlords and property managers in Nelson. Regulating them means the ones that are good don’t get tarred with the same brush.’’
A Nelson property manager, who asked not to be named to protect her clients, said bigger property management companies would jettison properties if landlords would not make repairs or improvements. These properties often ended up being managed by smaller companies, she said. ‘‘Big companies don’t want to get a bad name, so some property managers end up with discarded properties.’’
A property manager’s hands were often tied when it came to repairs, with some easier to action than others, she said. For example, secure housing is a requirement under the Residential Tenancies Act, so a property manager could easily authorise the repair of a broken lock.
‘‘But a leak, which isn’t urgent, you have to ask the owner for authorisation, and they might not be willing to pay for it.
‘‘Most owners are really tight and don’t want to spend money.’’
As a property manager, the decision to work for a particular landlord came down to a moral judgment, she said.
‘‘Ditching a property sends a strong message.
‘‘If an owner isn’t carrying out their repairs as a landlord, then for me personally, I wouldn’t work for them.’’