Alexander Marc: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Alexander Marc: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 19 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6429. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
11.  
MARC ALEXANDER (United Future) 
 to the  
Minister of Housing 
: Does he intend to help landlords protect their properties from problem tenants; if so how? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Housing) 
: 
 Yes. For example in this year’s Budget an additional $1 million was provided for education advice and information on rights and responsibilities and good business practice to enable landlords to identify problem renters before they move in. My officials are also looking at how we can improve the enforcement of tenancy tribunal orders so that it is easier for landlords to recover the costs of fixing damaged property and collecting rent arrears from their former tenants. 
Marc Alexander 
: What measures does the Minister propose to stop tenants like the infamous Ford family from Christchurch when because of fake references their most recent landlord became aware of their history only when it was publicised; and what can he say to that landlord who now has to wait weeks for the tenancy tribunal to issue an eviction notice and is left wondering what damage that family will do in retribution in the meantime? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I imagine the infamous family mentioned will find it pretty hard to find a house in the future. But from the point of view of assisting landlords we acknowledge that many landlords are essentially what might be called mum and dad operators. They are running a very small business. Therefore we need to continue to have the Ministry of Housing provide good information so that people who are renting out houses go through proper procedures to ensure they have a tenant who will be a good tenant. If people are in circumstances such as the one described by the member they should use the 0800 number to get good advice from the Ministry of Housing as to how to move rapidly. 
Katherine Rich 
: If the Minister is genuine about wanting to help landlords why is his department taking the ombudsman to court to overturn a decision that the department be required to provide information on defaulting tenants to the Department for Courts so that fines can be collected? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: For the reason I explained at length to the member at the select committee today which is that the ombudsman’s ruling could have been interpreted to mean that every Government department was required to provide information to anybody who had established debt. That seemed to Crown Law to be something that needed to be explained in law if that was to be the case. That is why that is being tested. 
Sue Bradford 
: What is the Government doing to assist tenants with problem landlords? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Once again as we discussed at the select committee this morning the view across the country now would be that the situation of tenants is one where landlords are very heavily controlled by the law. There are rights that tenants have in relation to bad landlords; the issue that is being raised now is about bad tenants. We will be very active in ensuring that tenants understand their duties as tenants and that landlords do have the ability to recover money when it is appropriate to do so. 
Marc Alexander 
: Is the Minister aware that Work and Income will not reimburse landlords for rent arrears but nevertheless will fund the offending tenants to move to another rental property creating yet another opportunity for them to reoffend; and does the Minister agree that this facilitates a situation whereby landlords waiting for rent never get it? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: If the member has a particular case that he is worried about he should bring it to me and we will have a look at it. 
Georgina Beyer 
: Is the Government taking any further initiatives to alleviate problems in this area? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: One of the most important things that we are doing at the present time is working with landlords who have been seeking to track down tenants who owe them sums of money which was the underlying substance of Katherine Rich’s question a little earlier. The Government is committed to ensuring that landlords can have tenancy tribunal orders affordably enforced and has directed officials to work through the details of these mechanisms with landlords. We are working with them now and we will get a solution. 
Marc Alexander 
: Does the Minister agree that a more effective solution than simply “issuing good advice to landlords” would be to develop a register of all tenants and landlords that would be publicly available that would list all tenancies and tribunal decisions and that could also be used by good tenants to demonstrate their positive record to prospective landlords? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Superficially it sounds like a good idea. But the one example we have of a bad-tenant register is in Queensland where the experience has been that for example people post names because they have malicious intent against their tenant. That has caused enormous problems. If we were to move down that track we would have to be very sure we could isolate those problems before we did so. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: Why did the Minister spend more than $100000 fighting the ombudsman instead of changing the law; and does he now intend to amend the Courts and Criminal Matters Bill which is to come up in the House this afternoon so that the Government will now help mum and dad landlords to collect debts from tenants who are beneficiaries? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: As I explained at some length this morning to the select committee that the member was at it was an important piece of law for the Crown to understand what the ruling by the ombudsman actually meant. For example it could have meant that any department was required to pass over information about anybody who was in debt to somebody who claimed that. That is why it had to be cleared up. 
Marc Alexander 
: Why is wilful abandonment of a property not an offence under the Residential Tenancies Act? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: It is not currently an offence under the Residential Tenancies Act. If the member wants it to be so I say to him that that bill is passing through the House and he can make that suggestion. 
Marc Alexander 
: Does the Minister agree that a major obstacle to the enforcement of tenancy tribunal orders is privacy laws that stop Government agencies from sharing information and allow offenders to hide behind the system with the Government’s blessing; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Yes. The Privacy Commissioner has indicated that this is an issue for his office. If Government departments are to pass on information—they of course have a great deal of information about everybody in this House—we do want that information protected. He does have an interest but he is helping with the processes and ensuring that debtors do pay their money back to the landlords. 
Marc Alexander 
: Does the Minister agree that the further consideration by the House of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill offers him a perfect opportunity to demonstrate his commitment towards cleaning up this problem; if so can we expect to see some amendments to that effect emanating from his office when the bill is debated? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Yes it does offer a vehicle but as I have said to the member before we are currently working with landlords and property investors to ensure we resolve this problem and we will do it as rapidly as we can.