New rent unfair, says family

Press, 23 September 1983, Page 5

New rent unfair, says family

Property reporter A Spreydon family has been told that its rent will rise to $BO a week when the freeze is lifted for a twobedroomed house which they say has some wallboards so rotten that a finger can be pushed through them. The rent would be double what they pay now and, in the opinion of a real estate agent familiar with the property, at least $l5 a week more than they should be charged. The family say that the wash-basin in the bathroom is propped up with a broom handle; the ceiling in the children’s bedroom leaks; there is a hole in the floor behind the toilet; and only two small windows in the lounge can be opened. Mrs Pat Parata considers that the new rent, which will apply from the beginning of October but will not become payable until the freeze is lifted, is unfair.

She is one of 36 tenants of GUS Properties, Ltd, to have been notified of an increase recently.

Her complaint is not, however, with the company, which, she says, has always been a fair landlord, but with the real estate agency which manages its residential accommodation, Christchurch Realty. She called a meeting of other tenants affected on Tuesday evening. Most of the 10 people who attended were Spreydon residents. One had had his rent increased from $32 to $B5 and another from $4O to $B5.

A GUS spokesman, Mr N. Kennedy, said, however, that rises of this order were exceptional. Of the 36 notices sent out, only three had warned of increases of more than $3O. Those tenants already «$6O or $7O a week id their rents raised by only $lO or $2O, he said. Mr Kennedy said that those who had been hit with big increases were on artificially low rents and had been on these for some time.

He also said that the reviews were intended by the company “to establish in

tenants’ minds what current market rates were” and that he doubted that they would become payable when the freeze was lifted because the Government would impose further restraints.

The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, has already told landlords that they will not be allowed to raise their rents excessively. Although no official policy announcement has been made, both the president of the Christchurch Landlords’ Association, Mr A. J. Roberts, and the chairman of the local Tenants’ Protection Association, Mr A. P. Alston, agree that restrictions are likely. Mr Kennedy said that Christchurch Realty had advised the company that the rents should be reviewed to a realistic level, even if the new charges could not be levied under the freeze regulations. The company had approved the move, but had told the real estate agency that it would have to be prepared to defend the new rates before the Rent Ap-

peal Board and that they would have to be fair, he said.

“We wanted to ensure that they were kept reasonable because our main business is grocery which is very much based on the good will of the public and there is no way that we want to risk that,” said Mr Kennedy. The reason that the increases were uneven was that the rents had been raised to a fairly uniform level, he said, although he conceded that some of the houses were “quite nice” while others were “not particularly high class.” He said that those tenants who felt they had a grievance should pursue the matter with the Tenants’ Protection Association, the Rent Appeal Board, or the Citizens’ Advice Bureau. He believed that they provided help free of charge. The company would also be very happy to deal with complaints individually. The big discrepancies in some cases between the rents being charged and the

present market rates were “a hangover from a previous agent who set the rents very low,” said Mr Kennedy.

Before the company puts its business in the hands of Christchurch Realty, Mrs C. M. Wilson, of Pasley Real Estate, handled its residential properties. She said that she had “no axe to grind” with GUS. It had always been a fair landlord, “very generous in some cases.”

If tenants had wanted to redecorate their flats, the company would pay for the materials and she was given “free rein” to hire tradesmen to do repairs as they were reported. Mrs Wilson said, however, that $BO a week for the Paratas’ house was absolutely shocking and that if it came on to the market now, and she was asked to set a rent, she would opt for between $6O and $65. Mr Kennedy said that the company had accepted the advice of Christchurch Realty which had valued the properties and decided on

that basis what should be charged. The agency declined to comment on the matter when approached by “The Press” yesterday.

A spokeswoman for the Tenants’ Protection Association, Ms Nicola Shirlaw, said that it had received 13 inquiries in the last week from tenants who had been notified of rent increases. All of the notices had been issued by Christchurch Realty and most of them were for GUS properties, she said.

The Housing Corporation’s deputy manager in Christchurch, Mr Brian Atkins, said that applications could be lodged with the Rent Appeal Board now, but it might be better to wait until nearer the end of the freeze. The board decided whether a rent was fair by comparing it with others being charged and against the state of the property. Both might change before the freeze was lifted, he said.