WELLINGTON RENTS

Evening Star, Issue 18253, 18 April 1923, Page 4

WELLINGTON RENTS

SOME SUBSTANTIAL INCREASES,

GRAVE ALARM FELT.

What is viewed with grave alarm by many tenants of houses in the city (says the Wellington ‘ Times ’) is an. apparent determination upon tho part of some firms of house owners to increase substantially the rentals of their houses. Inquiries by a ‘ Times ’ representative have elicited the news that in one locality alone the tenants of thirty houses belonging to one firm have received notice that the rentals are to be increased. The dwellings concerned are mostly those occupied by people of the working class, and in other parts of the city, where some families are 15ving_four in two rooms, it is said similar action has been taken by the owners. The notices, which wore issued some time ago, were received with consternation on the part of many people. Many families whose income is very small, and whose rent has been increased from 5s to 10s per week, expressed their alarm at the fact. They are people who are already on tho edge of tho standard of living, and will he able to pay the increase only by making small sacrifices. FORCED TO DO WITHOUT.

“We shall have to do without milk,” one woman was heard to say, “ and cut out our weekly visit to tho pictures, and my husband will have to smoke only a few times a week.”

It is in ways such as this that they seek to meet the increased charge. Some few of the tenants are said to have made application to the Labor Department for the standard rental of tho houses to be determined; but others are afraid to take any action for fear of incurring the displeasure of their landlords, in view of tho fact that the rent restriction clause in the Housing Act expires on July 31 next. HOW LANDLORDS CHARGE. The existing legislation gives the landlord the right to charge up to 8 per cent, on the capital value of a house for rent. There is an alternative for tho owner in that, in the case of houses valued at £1,3(10 and over (in which the weekly rented is not less than £3) he may apply to the court to have the rental fixed at 7 per cent,, plus rates, insurance, and an allowance for repairs. The notices issued are to a number of houses in Newtown and in the city area. As an instance, of the way in which rents are being increased, it may be mentioned that in one case of a house valued at £455, the owner is entitled to 14s rent. Ho is receiving 15s. and now has increased tho rent to 20s. There are other cases, one of a house of which the capital value is £560, in which the owner is entitled to 11s weekly, is charging 17s, and is now asking 2Cs; another in which the house is valued at £630, where he is entitled to 21s, is receiving 255, and is asking 355, which is the rental at 8 per cent, on a house valued at £1,150. Another house, valued at £7CO, which should yield 22s weekly, is rented at 255, and tho rent hero also has been increased by 10s. WILL ALL RENTS RISE? Section 46 of tho Finance Act extended the provisions of the Bill restricting rentals to July 31 next. After that date these provisions will lapse automatically, without tho necessity of any Act, and property owners will be free to fix what rentals they think fit. It is said that this date is viewed with apprehension by numbers of householders, who feel that on its passing they may be called' upon to pay more rent than they can afford, and who know that they will have no redress. Such action, it is said, would only increase tho already great overcrowding in citv areas.

The Rent Restriction Act itself was only a stop-gap. What is required is for the' Government and the municipality together to formulate a scheme which will bold out reasonable hope of a solution of the housing problem, and give tho people some opportunity of gaining a property in their dwelling. BRITISH LEGISLATION. .

In Britain the Government, after considering the report of the Onslow Committee on the housing question, has decided to extend the protection afforded tenants by thc-ir own Act to June, 1524, in the case of houses in London the rentals of which were £35 and over; and to June. 1925, in tho instance of those houses for which tenants were paying less than £35 per year rent. It is pointed out that these cheaper houses correspond to the ones now in question in Now Zealand, as houses in tho Old Country are very much cheaper.