Hard to wrap head around insulation
After more than 18 months trying to get his social housing provider to make his damp, cold flat warmer, Stephen McPaike’s landlord hired a contractor to tape bubble wrap to his windows.
The 34-year-old said during his two-year tenancy at Haast Courts in Linwood, Christchurch, he had thrown out two beds because of mould, despite ventilating every day. He pays $226 a week for his two-bedroom, 50 sqm unit. It is single-glazed, uninsulated and its only source of warmth is a Skope fan heater in the living room.
This winter, his tenancy manager came up with a solution – bubble wrap. It is the cheapest and most basic of options people can use to insulate windows.
McPaike’s home – a Christchurch City Council-owned flat managed by the O¯ tautahi Community Housing Trust – costs him almost exactly half of his weekly income.
OCHT senior housing adviser Bob Hardie said he believed OCHT was upholding the Government-set standard for good social landlords of providing ‘‘a warm, safe and dry home’’.
Emails show McPaike contacted his tenancy manager as early as October 3, 2016 – the same day the trust took over council housing – complaining of health issues for himself and now-6-year-old son. Despite the regular ventilation, when he pulled his bed from the wall to clean he found it riddled with mould. No steps were taken by the trust to remedy the issue.
McPaike said this was one of a myriad issues he had tried to have resolved by OCHT since he moved into his flat.
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) did not advise bubble wrap use.
‘‘Nevertheless, bubble wrap will almost certainly reduce heat loss through single-glazed windows significantly,’’ senior sector technology analyst Christian Hoerning said. A consumer watchdog executive is surprised so few people are pointing the finger at payday lenders for misconduct.
Financial Services Complaints chief executive Susan Taylor estimates just 10 per cent of the complaints she sees are lodged against payday lenders.
But there’s plenty a payday lender could do wrong that could get a consumer hundreds of dollars in compensation, she says.
Financial Services Complaints works alongside the Commerce Commission to hold financial service businesses to account. By law, all lenders must be a member of an approved dispute resolution scheme.
Many of the more than 20 complaints that have been lodged with the Commerce Commission against payday lender Superloans, would fall under misconduct that Financial Services Complaints could investigate and award compensation for, as Superloans is a member of the scheme.
Often unlawful payday lender behaviour had led to compensation payouts of between $200 and $1000, Taylor said. It could make a huge difference. ‘‘If they had a $1000 loan they may have
She suspected that was because people didn’t know about the service or were reluctant to complain because they feared the line of credit would be cut.
Taylor said if the lender was found to have breached their responsibilities, it could not charge any interest or fees for the time they were in breach. Her organisation could help negotiate a settlement for the borrower.
‘‘... there’s plenty a payday lender could do wrong that could get a consumer hundreds of dollars in compensation.’’ Susan Taylor