Cultural Awareness of Tenants

[essence]

This thread made me think about the tenant issues and cultural awareness of those tenants.

This post is not written to "slag off" any particular culture or ethnicity, but it does deal with one ethnicity based on my experience.

My niece has just completed four years with VSA (Volunteer Service Abroad) working in Pacific Islands. I won't be more specific than that, for her protection.

She described to me how the chief of the village makes the decision for the whole village. The village has no electricity, there is no rent issues as the land is owned by the village and has been for generations, there are no water charges (village well or rainwater run-off). There is very little money within the village but nobody starves as everyone looks after everyone else. If Tom (single male aged 20) gets out of control with alcohol, the extended island family soon reprimand him and he's back on the straight and narrow.

Contrast that with a newly arrived PI-er (Harry). He has never had to budget, pay rent/water charges or buy food. He arrives in NZ to live with wider extended family and now has to get a job etc etc.

His job pays him $500-$700 PER WEEK (or more)!! He's a very rich man compared to the Islands. What does he do?? He goes out and buys doo-dads, gives money to Church, gets drunk. He can go to the local Harvey Norman's/LV Martin's etc, and they "give" him a new X-Box, PSP2, whatever. Time payment? What's that? They just gave it to him. He doesn't know what he's signed or the implications of signing.

Pay his rent?? Why?? He didn't have to pay rent in PI, why should he pay rent here?

It's not that he can't pay his rent, it's not that he's deliberately withholding rent payments because he doesn't want to pay his rent, it's just that he doesn't understand why he has to pay rent.

This is not me being derogatory or racist, it wasn't until I was talking to my niece that I understood why this was happening.

If one has newly arrived immigrants in your rental property, don't assume that they understand the norms and expectations of our society.

How would you react if you suddenly shifted to a culture that supposedly has the same basic language (English) but their culture was vastly different from your own?? Don't you think you would struggle??

[drelly]

Short answer is no. I wouldn't struggle because most like people raised in NZ I'm not so naive as to expect another culture to be just like mine regardless of language. We have exposure to other cultures via TV, so we expect the rules to be different. I can't speak for his culture but the problems could be a lack of exposure to other ideas. Of course, he could just be thick...

[Re@der]

Not understanding money debt and it's management is a fairly wide spread affliction that all landlords come up against fairly often. In your example you give a good reason for it, but in many families it is not taught as a core skill.

[princess]

Hmm coming from a blended pakeha middle class family I suspect that this lack of knowledge is wider spread than you might think.

Kids don't get taught this stuff unless parents really make a concerted effort, not just to show but to force them to understand.

[flyernzl]

I agree.
I've traveled quite widely in the Pacific Islands and yes, the cultural/economic mores are very different.
In Tonga, for example, all land is owned by the King. No real estate agents, no mortgages, no rent. Add to that a always-warm laid back lifestyle and there is no economic pressure to build up assets for a rainy day, or acquire food for the off season, There isn't one.

[princess]

I guess that's why we go there for holidays eh, its so laid back!

My granddad used to talk about taking people from a subsistence economy - where if you had food for the day you were happy - into a western economy, and how it was pointless to expect them to assimilate. Their whole culture is hand-to-mouth.

Add in Winz, Pawn shops and Casinos to the recipe that Essence outlines, and its no wonder we have problems.. To a certain degree its pakeha ignorance at fault.

[drelly]

To a certain degree its pakeha ignorance at fault.

I'm sorry I don't buy it... it smacks of the same positive discrimination rubbish that so many people spout. "Let's make allowances for the poor dumb, brown guy because his culture is different". That kind of attitude is demeaning and undermines the people it's meant to support by considering them inherently incapable of adapting to different situations.

[Monid]

I'm sorry I don't buy it... it smacks of the same positive discrimination rubbish that so many people spout. "Let's make allowances for the poor dumb, brown guy because his culture is different". That kind of attitude is demeaning and undermines the people it's meant to support by considering them inherently incapable of adapting to different situations.

I'm inclined to agree, especially in regards to the demeaning part. However I think one issue is that adaption is difficult if you have already signed yourself up to too much debt etc.

[drelly]

True... but financial stupidity is still colour blind!

[Glenn]

Well I have done it all.
I assure you the problem is not colour or race based though.
I take it as a part of being a PM to educate many of my tenants.
Sometimes I put them in touch with budgeting agencies.
I have tenants from lots of asian countries a number of them are refugees.
Just like our race a small percentage take a little bit more training than others. Not only do I need to get across to them about each and every week paying the rent but also issues like mowing the lawn and putting the rubbish out. I have just this week had to deal with one that put up an ancestor shelf and damaged the paint work. Occasionally I have to clean up from burning shrine incense.
This is part of my duties as a PM. It can be done.
Like a couple of weeks ago I had a new tenant out of jail. Not too sure how long he had been there. Pobably a number of years. I took him to the tribunal and gave him a massive fright. He had to live where dirrected by the system for a number of years. Like in my flat or go back to jail. I bet I will not have any more trouble from him.

So fellow landlords I am saying we have a duty to change or even break in our tenants to make them conform to our society.
It can be done but sometime you need to take them to the wire with perhaps the occassional one all the way evicting them and taking their wages or benefit off them to pay the debt related to restoring the property. This does not mean the black men have to act like white or the Japanese like the Indian. Just certain practices like forcing the Vietnamese to not kill pigs out the back of the flat because the other 9 tenants in the block can not stand it.

[essence]

Thanks Glenn

Yet again, you've explained it much more elegantly than me.

My example probably wasn't the clearest and I certainly wasn't getting at any particular ethnicity.

What I was trying to explain, was that what is acceptable at "home" for the new immigrants (particularly) and tenants, MAY NOT (PROBABLY NOT) acceptable here.

Unfortunately, a lot of these tenants do not have any awareness of what is expected of them in NZ (politically, socially, economically) and that can make it very hard to them to be accepted as tenants.

[Glenn]

Telecom talks Turkey and other languages

On this subject I have just moved a Vietnamese tenant from one flat to another. These people have great trouble making themselves understood in English. Often they have a son or daughter of school age who can translate. However this does not always work because the young folk can not understand issues like rent, telecom and power.
Occassionally the tenants ask me to call Telecom or the power companies on their behalf. This is always a pain because the companies will not talk to you unless the tenant (their customer) has given the ok for me to speak on their behalf. Naturally not being able to speak English makes it very difficult for them and for me to help. I have gone through this process many times and I always find it such a pest. In the recent issue I was able to ring telecom and the power company with the tenant beside me. When the companies wanted to speak to the tenant he grunted to them and shook his head and the call centre staff were very helpful after they had finished with the hopeless call.
But today, a week later the tenant Son Doan calls and asks me to call by. It turns out the wideband Xtra service is not working. I call Telecom again and get pushed from staff to staff. I was starting to lose it and told them to ring Son Doan themselves.
But this time, at long last, I hit a slightly increased intelligence staff member.
They informed me that Telecom in fact now employ Vietnamese speaking staff. If they do Vietnamese perhaps they can manage other languages I struggle with like Chin, Kujarati, and Korean.

So here is the number you can give your tenants to call.

0800168168

[Perry]

Didn't I see foreign language options on
the Telecon web site, as well?

[Green Fish]

Eureka! Thank-you Telecom - and about time. That Privacy Act run-around can certainly send a man into an early grave.