Both Labour and National have committed to implementing the regulation of property managers. The Residential Property Manager Regulation Bill is now accepting submissions.
Where does Renters United stand?
We’ve read over the Bill and had some long discussion with other advocacy organisations about the strengths and weaknesses of the Bill.
Here’s a summary of our thoughts:
- All property managers should be regulated, that includes private landlords that manage their own property as well as property managers at Community Housing Providers and Kainga Ora. If we want a fair rental market property managers need to be held to a high standard, and private landlords shouldn’t get an exception.
- Landlords who have committed serious offences under the Residential Tenancies Act or have been ordered to use a property manager should not be able to become license property managers.
- Alongside the current reasons for a landlord being compelled to use a property manager, we believe a landlord should have to use a property manager if they continually breach peaceful quiet enjoyment, interfere with the supply of power or water, or discriminate.
- If we’re going to start requiring landlords to use property managers we’re going to need a publicly available list of landlords who have been compelled to use a property manager.
- The disciplinary process should be open and transparent and the Registrar should be required to inform a complainant of the outcome of their decision and it’s reason.
- Renters should be represented on the Complaints Committee when the complaint is made by a renter.
Our draft submission is now available for reading here. If you’re a renter and you have some feedback you can let us know what you think.
How can you have your say?
You don’t have to wait to have your say, you can do it right now! We’ve created a quick submit that you can use to have your say in under 5 minutes. All you have to do is tick the sentences that you agree with and then you can easily copy and paste the text into the parliament website!
Make a custom submission in 15 minutes
If you want to make a custom submission on the Housing and Urban Development website you can use our submission to help curate your response.
You can then complete your submission on the parliament website.