The Press SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1961. Tenancy Laws

Press, Volume C, Issue 29638, 7 October 1961, Page 10

The Press SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1961. Tenancy Laws

The Tenancy Amendment Bill, introduced into Parliament last week, is the second major attack by the National Party on a complicated mass of law which had its beginning in the war legislation of 1916. For 30 years the State intervened increasingly in tenancy contracts to the apparent advantage of tenants until the right of landlords to anything beyond the receipi of rent had been almost whittled away. Most of the tenancy statutes were enacted as temporary measures to meet special situations, but they acquired a quality of permanence

Although after the last war they were relaxed some what, it was left to the 1955 act to make a real attempt to restore the balance. The principles of the new bill carry this attempt a good deal further and foreshadow the ultimate end of “ emerg- “ ency ” legislation to con trol “fair rents” and the possession of buildings. A major injustice is tackled by the proposal to base such rents as are still controlled on the current government valuation and not on the 1942 valuation plus 38 per cent. In the last 19 years wages have increased by nearly three times that percentage, «x> that most landlords (often persons in quite modest circumstances) have been unfairly treated. The tenanta whose rents will rise most sharply on the sca'e have the consolation of knowing that in most cases

they have profited at the expense of their landlords. The best check on abuses by landlords is competition; and the steady improvement in New Zealand’s housing is well on the way to providing that regulator. The growth of home ownership and the generous help given to those who wish to own their homes have so radically changed the housing situation that the whole approach to tenancv legislation should be reexamined. Some form of protection for ignorant or unfortunate tenants will still be necessary, particularly to deal with the black market in “ key money ” Sometimes this is an arrangement freely entered into by both parties; more often it is a cloak for extortion, which is why it has been forbidden by law for so long. The aim of future legislation should be the prevention of profiteering as far as that is possible, without an attempt by the State to fix the terms of every tenancy in the way that may seem best to the Government in power. If that principle is established and discouragement to private enterprise is removed, New Zealand will find it easier to keep pace with the demands of a growing population for accommodation of all kinds Too much interference with ordinary market conditions is the best way of creating and perpetuating another shortage like that from which the country is now emerging.