Misgivings at tenancy behaviour ratings

Renters are going to need to be a lot more careful about angering landlords after the launch of a ‘‘Tenancy Risk Score’’.

The score, which runs from zero to a supremely trustworthy 1000, is a parallel to the credit scores that lenders use to assess whether a prospective borrower is a good bet to repay a loan.

Created by Tenancy Information New Zealand (TINZ), a private company, the scores draw on 15 different sources of information, including credit ratings, Tenancy Tribunal orders, driver licence information, Interpol alerts and ratings of tenants provided by landlords to TINZ.

Landlords will pay around $15 per search.

TINZ’s Ian Barker said the score would help landlords find low-risk tenants.

But not everybody is happy about the new scoring system.

Landlords have to get prospective tenants’ permission to check up on them, but tenant advocate Robert Whitaker from Renters United says refusing permission isn’t an option.

Realistically, anyone who refuses to give that permission has a low likelihood of getting a rental, he said.

‘‘Everyone has to have somewhere to live. Where are you going to live if you are a conscientious objector?’’

Renters United objected to subjective landlords’ ratings being included in the calculation of the credit score, he said.

Such ratings could have an unfair impact on a tenant’s ability to find a new home should their relationship with their landlord break down.

‘‘I’m not saying most landlords are vindictive, but there are vindictive landlords out there,’’ Whitaker said.

Baker said the Tenancy Risk Score was ‘‘fairly harsh’’ on areas such as verbal or physical abuse towards a landlord, drug use and unpaid rent.

Scores are created using a smart algorithm designed to predict the probability of a person being a responsible tenant.

‘‘TINZ is able to generate a Tenancy Risk Score on any adult who authorises TINZ to do so,’’ Barker said.

‘‘It’s generated in the same way a credit score is generated except with a bias towards tenancy risk.’’

People have the right under the Privacy Act to see the information TINZ holds on them, and demand any inaccuracies are corrected.

Barker said there were around 400,000 rentals, and about 85 per cent of owners owned only one.

‘‘Our feeling is that most property managers do reasonable checks,’’ Barker said.

‘‘Most private landlords seem to stop with verbal references. Over the entire industry it seems less than 40 per cent use online checks.’’

But a lack of demand from tenants for a ‘‘Landlord Risk Score’’ to help them avoid dodgy landlords meant it was unlikely TINZ would create one.

‘‘There is some demand but not enough,’’ Barker said. ‘‘Several years ago TINZ tried to help a group set this up by advertising it on TINZ’s website.

‘‘The simple truth with any tenancy is that the landlord is at greater risk than the tenant.

‘‘While the tenant may be subject to a sub-standard landlord who does not take their responsibilities seriously, tenants are able to move out or hold the landlord to account via the Tenancy Tribunal.

‘‘This is all different for the landlord, who is exposing their dwelling, often worth hundreds of thousands, to people who generally he has no prior information about.’’