Evicted tenants ask to meet Mr Friedlander

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 5

Evicted tenants ask to meet Mr Friedlander

A group of irate Christchurch tenants who have been evicted by landlords after refusing to pay illegal rent increases have asked the Minister of Housing, Mr Friedlander, to meet them. Labour’s housing spokesman, Mr P. B. Goff, talked to the group when he was in Christchurch on Wednesday. After hearing their experiences, Mr Goff has told Mr Friedlander that the rent thaw regulations are not working because the protection they give tenants is “totally inadequate.” Members of the group had all referred their cases to the Housing Corporation but without success. Mr Goff wrote to Mr Friedlander yesterday inviting him to meet them. He said that, by talking to

them, the Minister would find that his advice to tenants to sit tight and resist eviction was naive. Intimidation and constant fear of returning to their homes to find their possessions on the street meant that in most cases tenants backed down or found alternative accommodation rather than pursue their rights, he said.

Mr Goff called for a revision of the regulations, the provision of adequate' resources to ensure enforcement of the freeze, and for Mr Friedlander “to replace platitudes with real action.” The group at the centre of the challenge, described by Mr Goff as “representative and responsible,” was assembled by the Christchurch Tenants’ Protection Association.