Thames Star FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1936. QUESTION OF FAIR RENTS.

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 19726, 5 June 1936, Page 2

Thames Star

FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1936. QUESTION OF FAIR RENTS.

“With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”—Lincoln.

The latest Bill introduced in the House —the Fair Rents Bill —should not affect Thames very much, where reasonable rents prevail. In the larger cities of the Dominion thex*e may be the necessity for some improvement, especially in areas where slum conditions exist. In Auckland, with its quickly increasing population, many of the conditions as set out in the Bill will no doubt give the owners of buildings that are let for rental purposes some concern. The Bill appears to be designed to protect the workers from being charged an excessive high rental, and at the same time to provide decent living conditions. The whole question of what is a fair rent is largely governed by the prevailing rate of interest on the loan raised to erect the dwelling and the annual charges for insurance, local body rates and repairs. For several years now house property has not been looked upon favourably by investors owing to the difficulty of owners being unable to obtain a rent sufficient to give them a fair return, on their capital outlay.

Now the Government intends to take over the housing' question, and it‘ lower rents are the outcome of the Government’s scheme then house values will generally decline and the workers, as a whole, should benefit. This step has been forced on the Government as a logical sequence, rendered necessary by the fact that during the last ten years private enterprise has not kept pace with the needs of the people. The condition outlined in the new legislation, whereby application may be ma(]e to a magistrate, to determine what is a £air rent to be paid by the tenant, is going to throw a considerable amount of extra work on the Magistrates’ Courts, for undoubtedly there will be many applications made to the Courts for orders. In reference to the order made by a magistrate, there is a clause in the Bill which stipulates that the fair rent fixed must not exceed the basic rent or the rent payable in November last, the lower of these two to be taken as a basis. This appears quite an equitable reservation, because rents were fixed by many owners last year upon the ability of the tenant to pay. The grounds on which orders may be made for the recovery of possession of the house or for the ejection of a tenant are many, the principal one being, of course, the failure of the tenant to pay the agreed rent fixed under the terms of the Bill, The essence of the whole measuro appears to be that rents cannot be increased without reference to a magistrate. There are many clauses in the Bill that at present do not appear to be altogether satisfactory. The Minister has stated that the Bill ie only a temporary measure, and would, when passed, only operate September, 1937. Evidently the Government has just formally introduced the Bill and when it is discussed in committee it will find it necessary to alter the Bill considerably. '