PROPERTY RIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 127, 25 November 1938, Page 11

PROPERTY RIGHTS

PETITION BY OWNERS

RESTRICTIONS OPPOSED

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day

A plea to Parliament to recognise and continue their legal rights to hold and manage* their properties free from any legislative restrictions is embodied in a petition now in wide circulation among property owners throughout the Dominion. It was stated yesterday that this step had been taken in answer to another petition in which tenants urged that all forms of business premises should be placed under the Fair Rents Act. .

The property owners' petition is in two forms, one being signed by the owners of freehold or leasehold | estates in premises used for business purposes, including shops, warehouses, offices, factories, hotels, boardinghouses, and residential flats. The signatories oppose any suggestion to bring business premises within the scope of the Fair Rents Act or similar legislation, contending that any such interference would be a violation of their titles as freeholders and leaseholders, and that it would amount to partial confiscation. HANDLING OF OWN AFFAIRS. It is considered that the only way to determine a fair rental for business premises is to ascertain what in the ordinary course of business a business man, firm, or company is prepared to pay for them. Those engaged in business, it is added, are capable of handling their own affairs and of making their own contracts, and nothing short of a grave national emergency, affecting the well-being of the State, could excuse the interference by legislation with the sanctity of private contract. ;

The second form of the petition is being signed by people interested as owners, lessors, mortgagees, or shareholders of real property, or as ratepayers in cities, boroughs, and towns. In urging the Government not to further extend the expiry date of the Fair Rents Act, the petition state* that the Act has fulfilled its purpose and any further extension would be an unjustified interference with private rights and freedom of contract.

The operation of the legislation discourages private building and prevents progress, it is claimed, and the artificial restriction of rents reduces the rateable value of the properties affected and places an undue burden of taxation on properties not, affected.

The circulation of_ the petition is administered by a committee centred in Auckland, and the organiser, Mr. E. Bull, said yesterday that material evidence in its support would be placed before the Parliamentary Petitions Committee during the next session of Parliament. The petition, which has the endorsement of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, is to be presented by Mr. W. P Endean, M.P.

Mr. Bull said that tenants were at present signing a petition urging the extension of the Fair Rents Act to embrace business premises, and property owners took strong exception to a passage in this document which stated that "the need for placing > all tenants under the protection of the Act from unscrupulous landlordism requires no explanation."

EXPERIENCE DURING DEPRESSION

"The Fair Rents Act as it now stands applies only to dwelling houses or part of such premises let as separate dwellings." Mr. Bull said. "The same restrictions that are imposed on these houses would apply to business premises if the latter were brought within the scope of the Act, and it is the general opinion Of property owners that this would lead in many cases to the greatest injustice. During the depression many landlords of business premises greatly reduced rents, and these were still in force on May 1. 1936."

Landlords had their real rentals also further reduced by the fixing of the foreign exchange rate, which made the New Zealand pound equal to 16s of its former normal value. Rents under leases were also reduced by 20 per cent, by the National Expenditure Adjustment Act, which had now been made permanent.

It was evident, Mr. Bull added, that landlords suffered very severely during the slump period, and to further deprive them of a fair market rent in better times would be indefensible. The application of the Fair Rents Act to business premises would also have a serious reaction upon local body rates.