FAIR RENTS BILL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22435, 3 June 1936, Page 12

FAIR RENTS BILL

The Fair Rents Bill which has just appeared is a long and very complicated piece of legislation. Obviously meant to be. a stop-gap measure—its currency is only until September next year—it illustrates by the qualities mentioned how difficult is the subject with which it attempts to deal. The core of the proposals is to be found in provision for fixing what is called the fair rent. In the absence of an order from a magistrate, the rent paid for a house on May 1, 1936, is to be stabilised ; but either landlord .or tenant may apply to a magistrate to have it altered. Now comes the outstanding feature of the whole scheme. The rate to be fixed is to be such that " in the opinion of the magistrate it would be fair and equitable for that particular tenant to pay, having regard to any hardship likely to be inflicted on the tenant or the landlord and to all other relevant considerations." Here is a novel principle. If the tenant suffers hardship he is to be relieved at the expense of the landlord. Correspondingly, if the landlord is in sore straits, the tenant may be denied relief, or may even have his rent increased, because of the needs of his landlord. It is not straining the provisions of the bill to interpret them thus. What is to happen if the rent presses hardly on the tenant, yet a reduction would bring privation to the landlord 1 Such circumstances are not impossible, nor even improbable; but to the question they create there is no answer. The whole principle is wrong. If tenants are to be relieved, and if the rents are not unfair, then the State should provide the relief. Any attempt to proceed otherwise can only bring confusion and, very probably, hardship.