Letting fees ban could save renters $47m a year
Spotlight turns on looming teaching crisis
Housing Minister Phil Twyford has tabled a bill that would ban landlords from charging letting fees to tenants.
He was previously considering doing this as part of a wider overhaul of the renting system but has decided to do it as a standalone bill instead.
Landlords can currently charge new tenants for letting the property to them, nominally to cover fees they have paid letting agents. There is no maximum.
‘‘Letting fees are an unjustifiable tax on renters,’’ Twyford said, describing them as a method of ‘‘gouging renters’’.
‘‘I don’t know of any other area of the law where two parties can contract for a provision of services but then charge a third party.’’
He expected letting fees to be gone by the end of the year. All three parties in Government supported the move.
‘‘Around half of all Kiwis now live in rented homes. This bill could put up to $47 million into the pockets of Kiwi families each year,’’ Twyford said.
Twyford said he did not expect rents to rise in response.
‘‘In 2012 Scotland banned letting fees. There was no evidence that it led to any increase in rents,’’ Twyford said.
Property Investors Foundation Andrew King also thought rents would not necessarily rise in response.
‘‘It will in some areas but it is an extremely difficult one to predict,’’ King said.
He was against the law, however, as he thought the flexibility letting fees allowed was key: it let prospective tenants compete with other tenants by deciding to pay for a letting fee others wouldn’t.
‘‘From the tenants’ point of view at the moment it’s very difficult to get a property. So a lot of tenants will be willing to pay the fee,’’ King said.
‘‘At other times when it is actually difficult to get a tenant, landlords often pay it.
‘‘Having said that, I do think a lot of landlords do expect the tenants to pay it – it should be more of a negotiation.’’
Speaking to Stuff earlier this year, Twyford said letting fees were unfair.
‘‘Under the current laws, particularly when there is a shortage of housing and it’s a landlord’s market, the market can be harsh and oppressive to people,’’ Twyford said.
‘‘Banning the charging of letting fees to tenants is a good first step in improving the life of renters, while we continue our broader review of the Residential Tenancies Act.
‘‘This review will examine a range of changes to make life better for renters and will include looking at limiting rent increases to once per year. It will also consider other initiatives to improve security of tenure and better allow tenants to make their house a home. The review is expected to result in legislation being introduced to Parliament by the end of the year.’’ Teachers across the country are banding together to warn the public of a looming crisis in education: fewer teachers and more pupils.
The number of people enrolling in teacher training in the past six years has decreased by 40 per cent, while the population continues to grow, teachers say.
NZEI Te Riu Roa, the national teachers’ union, is campaigning for better wages and working conditions, in a bid to attract new teachers and keep them in the job for longer.
Blenheim teacher Carly Barnes said the campaign was about teachers being valued as professionals who did a crucially important job.
‘‘If we’re not paying teachers what they are worth, then why would anyone choose to do the job?’’ Barnes said.
‘‘It’s about keeping good teachers in front of our children. It’s not that people don’t want to be teachers. We love our jobs. But the general public and the Government need to acknowledge that it’s worth putting money into their pay and conditions.’’
The Bohally Intermediate teacher was one of about 150 teachers, or about 90 per cent of Marlborough’s teachers, who went to union meetings in Blenheim on Wednesday to formally support the national campaign.
Union president Lynda Stuart said it was difficult to hire teachers now, but there would be a ‘‘crisis in teacher numbers’’ in five or 10 years if something did not change.
‘‘We need to address these issues now, otherwise the crisis in teaching will only escalate and we’ll be faced with classes of 40 or more children,’’ Stuart said.
Marlborough branch chairman Dave Paterson said: ‘‘We need the best and brightest and most talented teachers we can get, and at the moment the best and brightest and most talented are not choosing to be teachers.
‘‘Now people are saying: why would you want to be a teacher? The pay is awful, kids are getting tougher.’’
Barnes said she did not know a single teacher who did not work overtime.
Mayfield School teacher Ciara Belcher said that, in her two years in the profession, she had come to understand how teachers became burnt-out and quit.
‘‘I’m trying to convince myself to stay in the job already.
‘‘Teachers teach because they love working with kids.
‘‘You know the pay isn’t going to be amazing, but that’s not why you do it.
‘‘You do it because you believe that education matters,’’ Belcher said.
‘‘The people who are losing out here are our children. If we value education, and realise we need to look after young people who are going to take over in 20 years, our community will be so much better off for it.’’
"Letting fees are an unjustifiable tax on renters." Housing Minister Phil Twyford