FAIR RENTS?

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27378, 17 June 1954, Page 5

FAIR RENTS?

Sir, —Regarding my letter of June 9, I have in mind a widow tenant, a middle-aged woman who had married a widower 20 or 30 years older than herself. She became a widow. She had a cottage and a big garden for 15s a week and sub-let one room for £1 a week. She quarrelled badly with her sub-tenants, and, between them they did a lot of damage. The owner was a working man with a family, paying rent. Although the Labour Department knew the owner objected to sub-letting, it readjusted the subtenancy from £1 to 15s, thus conniving at a breach of the law. She agreed to get rid of the sub-tenant and to get no more. She got more and charged more than the Labour Department had fixed.—Yours, etc., W. ANDERSON. June 11, 1954. [“The writer’s grievance appears to be that the landlord cannot get approval to the increased rental which he seeks.” said the district superintendent of the Department of Labour and Employment (fdr S. E. McGregor) when this letter was referred to him for comment. “Should the rents officer be unwilling to approve of an ‘agreement between a landlord and tenant providing for a rental increase, then the Tenancy Act provides that a landlord may apply to the Magistrate’s .Court for a fair rental determination. If the landlord in this case considers that he can justify any increase in rental, then he should lose no time in applying to the Court accordingly.”]

Sir, —Personally I think that “Fair Rents” is a misnomer, because unless it is fair to both parties, it cannot possibly be fair. It is high time that the National Government rectified some of the anomalies pertaining to rents. In my case the approved rent is £1 below what would be a reasonable return on my investment, that is allowing for all outgoings, plus maintenance at present-day costs. My tenants sit there smugly protected by the law, while I and my wife both work to pay off our home, and apparently to help keep my tenants so that they can keep up their present high standard of living. Our tenants, in addition to always being dressed in the height of fashion, can afford to run a car, while I, the poor silly landlord, use Shanks’s pony.—Yours, etc., SILLY BILLY. June 16, 1954.