Pole dancing costly for tenant
Housing minister says landlords should not ask for bank records
AWellington landlord allegedly labelled a prospective tenant a bad character for enjoying pole dancing classes after the young woman was asked to hand over three months of her bank statements.
The landlord had earlier been keen to have the woman as a tenant and requested a second meeting with her, a friend of the woman, called Chris, who accompanied her to the meeting told the Herald.
However, once the landlord browsed the statements and noticed the classes, he bluntly told her: “I don’t know if we want someone of that sort of character.” Her story follows revelations in yesterday’s Herald that landlords are increasingly demanding copies of prospective tenants’ bank statements in a move denounced as “unethical” and criticised by Housing Minister Phil Twyford as discriminatory.
Auckland-based property manager Rachel Kann told a social services select committee last month she routinely asked for bank statements.
“I don’t just want to put a tenant into a property and no sooner have they been put in they can’t afford the rent,” she said.
“They’re paying somebody’s mortgage and I see a lot of people who are low socio-economic and their bank statements literally will read, ‘KFC, McDonald’s, the dairy, KFC, McDonald’s, court fine’, trucks that they buy, goods that they can’t afford.”
But Twyford said landlords had all the power amid “a terrible shortage of rental properties”.
“I don’t think there are many people who’d think it would be acceptable for a property manager to request the bank records of a prospective tenant and then pass judgment in the media about someone’s spending habits.”
Property managers or landlords who requested such information were “skating very close” to the line of discrimination.
“A credit check is allowed under the law,” he said.
“But the law is very clear that landlords are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of, for instance, employment status, so asking for a pay-cheque or payslip is sailing very close to the line.”
Despite Twyford’s condemnation, the Government’s Ministry of Social Development suggests prospective tenants produce bank statements to help secure rental accommodation.
“If you’re in paid work, ask your employer to give you a letter stating that you’re employed in a permanent or long-term job,” its “becoming a tenant” section reads.
“Or, you could show your landlord your bank statement with regular income.”
The Real Estate Institute of NZ and Property Investors Federation also said checking bank statements was unnecessary.
“The focus needs to be around ascertaining whether a tenant has stable employment and can pay the rent, not whether they spend their disposable income on KFC or Uber Eats,” REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said.
The federation also did not believe it was necessary for landlords to view bank statements.
“The main ways we advise members to quality check prospective tenants is through a credit check, looking up Tribunal Orders online and checking with previous landlords or current landlords if the tenant allows,” executive officer Andrew King said.
Norwell said the Government should introduce regulations to oversee how landlords and property managers check credit, while King wanted landlords to be given more power to recover rental arrears faster.
For his part, Chris, who accompanied the Wellington woman on her search for houses, believed landlords were asking for bank statements because new government regulations were squeezing their profit margins. The statements were then used as a negotiating tool.
He described how, at another meeting, a different landlord browsed the woman’s statements then told her she could afford to pay a higher rent than he was asking.
“Last year there was a big thing going around with landlords asking tenants ‘how much are you actually willing to pay to get a property?”’
“We feel this is the next step — no longer are they asking how much are you willing to pay, they are now looking at bank accounts and going, ‘Oh, this is how much you can pay’.”
Auckland rents are rising at their slowest pace in years, a new report has found.
The cost of renting a “typical” threebedroom Auckland home, between April and June, was up 3.5 per cent or $19 more a week than during the same period last year, Barfoot & Thompson’s quarterly review of rent prices found.
Yet, despite the rise, the results showed landlords were no longer able to raise rents as quickly as before, said company director Kiri Barfoot.
“This is the smallest percentage increase in weekly rents that we have observed in at least the last two years and is also the first time the average increase has dropped below the $20 per week mark.
“This time last year, the average increase in weekly rent on a threebedroom home was more like $22, and in 2016 it was as high as $24.”
The drop in rent prices across the first half of 2018 follows steady rises in rents last year and large jumps of 5 per cent in 2015 and 2016.
Barfoot & Thompson’s findings were based on data from the more than 16,000 properties its agents manage with three-bedroom homes being the most common.
One-bedroom properties bucked the trend to be up 4.6 per cent on rents during the same period last year.
“West Auckland was the only region of the city to experience price increases above 5 per cent, reflecting the growing popularity of the area among renters,” the Barfoot report found.