Freeze on holiday rents

Press, 27 October 1982, Page 7

Freeze on holiday rents

PA Whakatane The day of the profiteering landlord, who evicts tenants for six weeks in the summer and then charges holidaymakers excessive rentals is finished, for this year anyway. About 200 Ohope and Whakatane flats and houses are rented in this way every summer, the landlord taking rentals three or even four times the usual rate. The Rent Freeze Regulations, however will stop this. Should landlords not abide by the regulations they

would face almost certain prosecution, said a Housing Corporation spokesman. Many landlords have in the past included special clauses in their rental agreements ensuring that tenants vacate the premises for six weeks during the height of the holiday season. The rental for these six weeks can be as much as $250 a week. However, the freeze regu-, lations will stop this, although the manager of the Housing Corporation in Rotorua, Mr Neville Choat,

said that it was still legal to have a “move out” clause in lease agreements. “But landlords are no longer permitted to charge an increased rental during this period then bring the old tenants back at the former rental,” he said. “This would be an obvious breach of the regulations and would result in a prosecution's being laid.” Any property used for holiday makers must, this season, have the same rental it had before the existing tenants were evicted.