Dunedin Budget Advisory Service financial mentor Raewyn Bungard said they were seeing hundreds of people on low to fixed incomes who were spending as much as 70% of their money on rent alone.
‘‘My reason for wanting to draw attention to the lack of tenancy services is because between budgeting services like ourselves and citizens' advice [bureau], we're actually picking up the slack where tenancy services should be.
‘‘We're actually advising tenants a lot of the time, especially [those on a] low income. We work with all walks of life.’’
She said there was a need to revive tenancy services in the regions, particularly where rental prices were increasing markedly, along with the percentage of one’s income that went into rent.
‘‘We get tenants that don't know their rights - maybe their rent's going up quite significantly and they don't realise that they have rights to say ‘hang on a minute’.
‘‘They generally don't know their rights. They just feel like they don't have any, they're not empowered.’’
Her comments come after the Otago Daily Times reported the issues tenant and University of Otago student Zoe Eckhoff had with a notorious landlord earlier this year.
This included the landlord not issuing the keys to the new tenants, falsely advertising the property as healthy homes compliant, and letting mould grow all around the interior and exterior of the house.
Ms Bungard said this sounded like an ‘‘extreme’’ example of what could go wrong, but it was nonetheless instructive.
‘‘Landlords should know by now these are the healthy home standards and shouldn't be subjecting people to living in some of the situations they find themselves in. It's just ridiculous.’’
She hoped recent initiatives, such as the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) tenancy inspection of many of Dunedin’s most notorious housing areas, would lead to greater enforcement down the line.
‘‘As far as I'm concerned, a good outcome would be that tenants and landlords have a place to go to get support for any issues they might be having.
‘‘Ideally, we want our communities to have stable housing.’’
Miss Eckhoff said she was pleased people were talking about the issue.
‘‘Right now, landlords are benefiting from the exploitation of first-time, naive, young students.
‘‘If it became the social standard to stay away from such properties, landlords might be forced to make a change.’’
She recognised this would be a difficult process, considering students needed a place to stay.
‘‘It's the precise reason I ended up in my conditions, because the flat I signed for was the only one that accepted us.
‘‘In an ideal world, landlords with such a ... destructive history with the Tenancy Tribunal would be put under investigation and would be stripped of their ability to sign tenants.’’
Range of services, says MBIE
In a statement tonight, MBIE's head of tenancy Kat Watson said it employed more than 100 staff up and down the country, who deliver a range of services.
"There are five Tenancy Services staff permanently based in MBIE’s Dunedin office, but it’s important to note Tenancy Services provides a national service which is able to flex or increase capacity in different regions where appropriate.
"For example, additional staff from MBIE’s Northland, Manukau, and Porirua offices supported their Dunedin colleagues on the ground during the recent inspection of private student rental flats."
Staff often did not need to be based in a region to provide support for members of those communities, she said, as "we provide services in a range of ways to ensure they are efficient and accessible, including online and by phone".
"Tenancy Services also regularly engages with multiple stakeholder groups in the community and is happy to speak further with Dunedin Budget Advisory Service about how they can assist."
