RENT-PROFITEERING.

Wairarapa Age, 15 October 1920, Page 4

RENT-PROFITEERING.

There seems to be serious need in London for some legislation to prevent'" profiteering in rents by owners of city properties. Some statements made at a recent meeting of tenants of city offices and business premises disclosed some amazing instances of greed 011 the part of landlords. An advance to £9OO of the rent/of £.">oo paid for many years for premises in Mincing Lane was the mildest case cited. In another the lessee of offices for which he had hitherto paid £BOO was invited to pay £2OOO, and, not unnaturally, protested rather violently. His remarks, 110 doubt, relieved his feelings, but subsequently he had cause to regret them, for his landlords informed him that, as he had insulted their agent, his rent would be £2500, and that if he did not care to pay it, a Japaneso firm was waiting for his place. A rise from £BOO to £2600 to be accepted or declined in ten minutes was the experience of a linn which had occupied certain offices for forty years. In a fourth case the lessee of a suite of twenty-four rooms, in which he employed eighty clerks,«was confronted 011 the expiry of his lease with the proposition that lie should pay a premium of £35,000 for a renewal. He refused, and offered to buy the premises, but someboxly else secured them at a higher figure than he had offered. The meeting of tenants passed resolutions urging the Government "to give tenants security of tenure for three years and to limit, to 50 per cent, any increase in rent.