The Northland Age

A few rotten eggs

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FROM PAGE 7

Thanks to the Otamatea Grey Power for their diligence in educating the public, some of whom still suffer from being brain-washed by the War on Drugs propaganda of last century.

VICTORIA DAVIS

Golden Bay Re your editorial ‘Hell on earth’, (September 4).

I believe there should be a registrar of both landlords and tenants who have appeared before the Tenancy Tribunal, stating the reason and the outcome.

I further believe that the rental accommodat­ion paid by WINZ should be paid straight to the landlord’s bank account, as many tenants are fraudulent­ly using the money paid for other uses. Interest should be payable on any rent arrears, as landlords are not charities, with some tenants obtaining nothing other than an interest-free loan, which in many cases are drip fed over many months, if one is able to locate them, and obtain an order through the Tenancy Tribunal.

Any order made by the Tenancy Tribunal should be treated the same as a court finding to be collected, not the landlords with all costs involved added to the tenant’s debt. This also should apply to any debt the landlord owes to the tenant.

I am all for good landlords and tenants, and yes, I have found the Tenancy Tribunal fair, apart from the fact that a service address is required.

This is impossible at times for the landlord, and where a service address is not known, then a notice in the public notice column in the newspaper should be acceptable as service.

Bad tenants and rogue landlords are the cause of high rents to good tenants, as it is the landlord who bears the loss with bad tenants, and I think on the whole that most tenants and landlords are very good.

It is the landlord who takes the flak when he increases the rental, but the landlord faces ever-increasing costs, and, as is known, more and more landlords creating a shortage of rental properties, allowing rogue landlords to increase rents.

As a landlord I have a responsibi­lity to the tenant, just the same as a tenant has a responsibi­lity to me, and that is called a signed rental agreement just like any other signed agreement both parties, are responsibl­e to honour it, as it is on agreement of trust.

But hey, where is the trust? By the time the landlord is able to evict tenants, in most cases they have already stolen money from the landlord, the WINZ accommodat­ion benefit unpaid, power, phone and others. Just see the mail pile up, as they do a runner. A few are nothing other than career criminals, and their debts increase the costs to honest people.

For example, shopliftin­g is a crime not paying one’s rent is not. I ask the Government is justice in the hands of the career criminals or politics? Perhaps they go hand in hand, while honest people pay the price.

On the whole, most landlords and tenants are good people, and without private landlords the government would have greater housing problems on their hands. So, Minister Phil Twyford, why the abuse of landlords, instead of protection from career criminals and good tenants from a few rogue landlords?

Both good tenants and landlords need support, not be put in a basket of a few rotten eggs, as doing such shall only degrade others. JOHN BASSETT

Diggers’ Valley

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