Tremain Chris: Residential Tenancies (Damage Insurance) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Tremain Chris: Residential Tenancies (Damage Insurance) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 In the brief 3½ minutes that I have I would like to finish my speech about the Residential Tenancies (Damage Insurance) Amendment Bill. The aim of the bill is to protect tenants against personal liability for damage caused to a premise when they played no part in causing it. 
Just quickly before I get into that I want to look at the current relationship that exists between landlords and tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act. It is a contract at common law. There are a couple of things here that cover both the landlord’s responsibilities and the tenant’s responsibilities. The landlord’s responsibility is firstly to provide and maintain the premise in a reasonable condition. Secondly the landlord is to allow the tenant quiet enjoyment of the premises. Those are a couple of the landlord’s responsibilities. Let us look at some of the tenant’s responsibilities. They are to pay the rent on time to keep the premises reasonably clean and tidy and to notify the landlord as soon as any repairs are needed. The most important point here though is that one cannot damage or permit damage to be done to the premises one must inform the landlord of any damage and lastly one must leave the property clean and tidy and clear of rubbish and possessions at the end of the tenancy. 
In my opinion the accountability is clear there. If the tenant damages the property or if the tenant brings friends on to the property who damage the property the accountability is clear. The law sends the right message. If there is a positive relationship and the tenant damages the property he or she is responsible for fixing it and putting it right—that person is responsible as the tenant. If we look at what this legislation seeks to do we see it seeks to protect a tenant against personal liability for major damage to take away any responsibility from the tenant and to avoid the tenant coming up with payment for any damage that he or she played no part in causing. 
I will just give members a quick example of something that happened over the adjournment. I was called to a property in Hastings Street in Napier. The neighbour in fact called me to view a tenanted property. We walked up there. There were plates strewn across the road and rubbish all outside the place. The front door had been smashed in. We found out what had happened. The tenant had vacated the property and left two friends in the property with their small child. It was the friends who were responsible for the damage that had taken place in that property. The new law would protect the tenant against personal liability for any major damage that had been caused by his or her friends—a premise that is absolutely crazy. We have a situation where the damage has been caused by the act of the tenant who has brought his or her friends in and now we are looking to pass legislation that takes any responsibility for that away from the tenant. 
I personally think that is crazy. The poor landlord is now faced with proving the extent of the damage and the amount of it. The landlord has to prove who is responsible for the damage— 
Kate Wilkinson 
: He is not even there. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: He is not even there; it is absolutely crazy. We will now force landlords to take out tenant insurance. Whom will that be passed on to? Probably to the tenant resulting in an increase in rent. Lastly it sends absolutely the wrong message to tenants. It tells them not to worry about the property any more because if they bring their friends on to the property and the friends damage it well c’est la vie. 
I am totally against this legislation; so is the National Party.