Rents frozen for six months
The Government is freezing rent rises for six months and stopping almost all evictions for three months under urgent coronavirus legislation.
The changes apply from today and give tenants a lot more leniency in not paying rent if they are not able to do so.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson had earlier only indicated a rent freeze and an end to no-cause terminations, but the bill to be passed yesterday goes significantly further with more protections for renters.
It converts all fixed-term tenancies that end during the three-month period into period tenancies, unless both the landlord and tenant wish to move out.
Tenants who can’t pay rent have much longer before their landlord can take them to the Tenancy Tribunal – 60 days instead of 21.
And if it does go to the Tenancy Tribunal – which can operate without tenants or landlords appearing – the tribunal can decide that eviction should not occur if tenants have made ‘‘reasonable endeavours to pay rent’’ and that ending the tenancy would be unjustified.
If you are hoping for a pre-lockdown special on your groceries, you might be out of luck.
Supermarkets around the country have been put under pressure in recent weeks as shoppers fearing the prospect of weeks at home have stocked up.
Shops have sold out of everything from flour to toilet paper, hand sanitiser and paper towels.
Paymark reported $111 million was spent on Monday alone on food and liquor purchases. But shoppers have pointed out a lack of the normal discounts and promotions.
A spokeswoman for Countdown confirmed it was not running specials for now.
‘‘We made the decision last week not to go ahead with planned promotions right now because we simply do not have the stock in store for customers and we do not want to exacerbate demand. We also want to enable our team to completely focus on serving our customers and not changing price or promotion tickets.
‘‘It would be unfair and highly disingenuous of us to promote a special price, then limit the amount people could buy, or worse, not have it available at all. We are dealing with extraordinary and unprecedented demand. If we put an item on special and it is all gone by lunchtime, that is not OK.’’
She said the situation was being reviewed every day. ‘‘Ensuring that we are providing food and other essentials to Kiwis is our absolute priority.’’ She confirmed Countdown had not increased any of its standard shelf prices and said the chain was sensitive to making sure it was delivering value for customers. ‘‘As with any week, customers may see produce and meat prices fluctuate due to seasonal or market demand.’’