Rental WOF business threatened
The fortunes of businesses can alter when the government changes, so election season can be a worrying time.
Graham Roper from Southlandbased Rental WOF has developed a private warrant of fitness inspection service, which this week achieved national coverage with inspectors covering every major town and city.
But Labour, the Greens, and the Maori Party all want to pass laws making rental WOFs necessary for landlords who want to rent out their properties, which leaves Roper wondering what the future holds.
Roper also worries that if government brought in a WOF, it would be end up giving homes a ’’pass/fail’’ result, taking many homes off the market.
National raised that fear when it opposed Labour’s Healthy Homes (Guarantee) Bill earlier this year, and also back in 2015, when National’s Nick Smith estimated 100,000 rentals would be taken off the market if an earlier version of the bill were passed into law.
Roper developed the system for Right Groundwork Group under which rentals are inspected and issued with a rating of A (excellent), B (very good), C (good), D (average), E (poor) and F (very poor).
The concept was, the system would be attractive to landlords trying to market their properties, while also giving them an incentive to invest in upgrading their properties to win higher ratings and better tenants.
Renters can easily pay $20,000 a year in rent - more in Auckland so should be interested in the standard of their lease property.
‘‘A prudent person spending a large sum of money, undertakes an independent assessment. It just makes sense that anyone spending $20,000 per year or more would have an independent rating report before outlaying their money,’’ Roper says.
Roper says the government, and councils, have too many conflicts of interest to be trusted to do rental WOF inspections.
Both own residential properties that would need WOFs, and councils have consented properties which could potentially fail WOF tests, depending on the standards set.
‘‘It’s our view that none of these entities undertake rental warrant of fitness,’’ Roper says.
Robert Whitaker, from the Renters United advocacy group,
Renters can easily pay $20,000 a year.
understands Roper’s concerns.
‘‘We’ve got no objections to accreditation schemes or quality marks on top of minimum standards,’’ Whitaker says.
‘‘It’s clear the private market, left to its own devices, doesn’t provide that lift.’’
But where would a Labour-led government leave his rental WOFs? ‘‘I don’t know,’’ Roper admits. But Whitaker says if councils were tasked with enforcing legal minimum standards, they would be likely to contract those services to private businesses and experts like Roper.