Abandoned state house upsets Timaru residents
There may be some relief in sight for residents of a Timaru street where a Kāinga Ora home has sat empty for months.
Some residents of Pukaki St, who were reluctant to be identified, said the house had been abandoned since October 2021, and had fallen into a state of disrepair despite repeated calls to the housing provider.
They alleged the home had become a drawcard for squatters and vandals, and had not been maintained in this time, with lights left on, windows wedged open and the grounds becoming overgrown.
Kā inga Ora Homes and Communities (formerly known as Housing New Zealand) South Island deputy chief executive Paul Commons issued a statement saying Kā inga Ora is ‘‘aware of the situation’’ and has been ‘‘working hard behind the scenes to resolve it as quickly as possible’’. Commons added ‘‘significant progress towards being able to re-let this home’’ had taken place this week.
‘‘We have now been able to access the property, and work is being scheduled to get the home and section tidied up and ready for a new customer to move in.’’
Kā inga Ora would not confirm how long the property had been untenanted or if the tenancy had been abandoned or terminated without a privacy waiver from the tenant, but did refer The Timaru Herald to the Tenancy Services web page detailing the process for a suspected abandoned property.
It advises landlords to make contact with the tenant and request written confirmation, which would allow them to enter the property immediately. If this is not possible, landlords must give 24 or 48 hours notice, depending on the circumstances, before entering to confirm the property has been abandoned.
They can then make either an expedited abandonment or standard application to the Tenancy Tribunal to allow for return of the property within 10 working days or longer for the standard application, with the possibility of a tribunal hearing if the tenant does not accept they have abandoned the tenancy.
‘‘Under the Residential Tenancies Act, landlords are required to go through a process and meet certain conditions before a property can be deemed abandoned or non-occupied, and the landlord is then allowed to enter the property and prepare it to be re-let.
‘‘This process is designed to protect both tenant, and landlord,’’ Commons said. ‘‘We appreciate that living near a property that appears to have been abandoned can be concerning for the community, so we endeavour to work through this process as quickly as we can.’’
According to the most recent figures from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for the March quarter, there were 116 applications for state homes on the housing register in Timaru, and a further nine on the transfer register.
Close to $200,000 in emergency housing special needs grants to 182 applicants had been approved in the same quarter.
Commons said Kā inga Ora is ‘‘very conscious of the demand for public housing and work hard to keep any vacancies in our homes as short as possible’’, but ‘‘the process we need to follow in these situations does take some time, which we appreciate can be challenging for the community.’’
He said at present there are three vacant properties in Timaru that are ‘‘being prepared to be re-let following changes in circumstances for customers’’, and a further eight properties in Timaru being upgraded as part of the Kā inga Ora retrofit programme.
In May, Kā inga Ora confirmed it had purchased a 12,100-square-metre site off State Highway in Timaru to build up to 40 houses on – which would be the largest public housing build in South Canterbury in 50 years. It paid $3.95 million for the block of land opposite Ara.
Construction on the largest public housing build in South Canterbury in 50 years is expected to start next year, with up to 40 houses to be built.