ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF
Judith Collins and Jacinda Ardern talk about the new tenancy laws expected to pass this week. (Video first published August 4, 2020)
A group of Wellington students signed a $1040 per week lease for a four-bedroom flat, only to find one of the bedrooms was also the lounge. Third-year law and psychology student Emily Cooper, 20, and her three flatmates signed the lease and handed over a $4160 bond sight-unseen because they were working full time in Auckland over the summer. They feared they would miss out if they waited. “We were getting very desperate because the term was about to start, and we still didn t have a place,” Cooper said.
Tenants on blacklists written by landlords, managers: Can post anything they like
4 Feb, 2021 04:42 AM
4 minutes to read
Tenants have objected to blacklists. Photo / Michael Craig
A tenant chief says landlords can post anything they like on blacklists they share, yet there was no recourse for people who rented properties against such lists. Penny Arthur, the Christchurch-based manager of the Tenants Protection Association, said more than one blacklist existed and they weren t fair. We became aware of it at the end of last year, Arthur said of tenant blacklists. There are a number of landlord Facebook groups where landlords can post anything they like about tenants, she said, indicating the tenant might not know nor would be able to object.
Real Estate Institute chief executive Bindi Norwell welcomed the Privacy Commissioner’s move and said it was disappointing to hear that “bad tenant” databases were being created. Doing so was potentially a breach of the Privacy Act and there could also be defamation issues as some of the listings apparently contain unverified information, she said. “From our understanding, we believe that most of the users of these websites are private landlords rather than property managers. “We will be very clear with our members that the use of such a database is likely to be unlawful and is not something we would consider as acceptable.”