Palmerston North landlords beware

[Gibbonz]

This post to remind landlords to check carefully a prospective tenants reference from their existing landlord. Don't just trust the cell phone number, on the reference as this could be the tenants own. ALWAYS check the phone number against the phone book or some other means.

I have just "written" a reference for a tenant that has been given a 2nd 10 day letter and has significant outstanding damage issues. I wrote that the tenant always paid the rent on time (some months ago after 10 day letters WINZ paid it) then it was stopped (not by WINZ but by the tenant instructing WINZ to stop) And the property is always well looked after.

Another TUI ADD....Yeh right.

The phone number on the reference is the tenant's!

I would like to give the name but will not at this time name this woman.

PS. PM rang me to check and I have a copy of this so called reference.

[drelly]

Why did you write her a good reference?

I don't trust existing landlords' references as they are often just trying to get rid of a problem tenant with a good reference. I like to phone the previous landlord as well.

[Gibbonz]

I did not write a reference, thats why the "written". Sorry for confusion, but I am alerting to the issue or "fraudluent representation" for PI's every city/town.

Now for an extra.... I have been asked to write a letter ti WINZ to state that there is broken windows and other damage to fix, and as all income is from WINZ they need a letter!!! I should have said "write it yourself" but will just delay untill Tenancy mediation next Monday. Have requested a section 56 as well.

Quite a learning curve for us.

Cheers

[Glenn]

You need to check every tenancy application on Baycorp. Also for a mear $2 check where their car was last registered. Also handy to check the owner of the property they are living in. You can check the electoral roles and white pages. It is quite common to have false names given.
But the big question is how come you issued two section 56 (10 day notices). Landlords are permitted to lodge tribunal applications as soon as you issue the 10 day notice. You do not need to wait till the 10 days have lapsed.

[Gibbonz]

2 X 10 day letters

Thanks for your post Glenn.
Big learning curve, with Tenancy services saying that 21 days must elapse before they can assist eviction, this gave us an unclear message on the 10days. What confused the issue, the tenant paid 2 weeks back rent, but was still behind, so we decided to issue the 2nd 10 day notice as "insurance" due to the unfixed or attended to items after a property inspection as well.

We have a mediation on Monday 22nd. This was recommended by tenancy services as in most cases the tribunal will refer back to mediation. I accepted this.

I now have "landlording in NZ" by Frank Saxton, so am a little better informed now. I am going to put reference to this book in a new thread as I feel it is a good reference to go to sleep reading.

[Glenn]

You have to be a bit careful with Tenancy Services in Palmy. I once had to deal with their man one time he was releaving in Nelson. His knowledge of the RTA was to say the least suspect or else he was just not using the RTA as it is written.
There are two sections in the RTA that permits a termination clause to be added to a tribunal order.
One is 55 which says at the time of the application the rent was three weeks in arrears.
The other 56 says if a 10 day notice has been issued and not remedied at the time of the order. In other words at the time of the mediation hearing.
Obvioulsy the tenant has to agree with the proposal to have a termination / enforcement order.
There is definately no requirment in the RTA to require the tenant to be in arrears by 3 weeks to have a termination order. The other issue that is often overlooked is "the tenant must have a history of being in arrears" in other words a one off miss of rent can hardly be counted as an instant reason to evict someone. It has to have been going on for a significant part of the tenancy. My personal interpreation of this means if the tenant misses in the first month this is a significant part of the tenancy like 1 out of 4 is 25 of the time. This in my book means that it is reasonable to make an application to the tribunal. But it is not reasonable if after say 12 months they miss one payment and struggle to catch up.
Now another twist to section 56 says that at the time of making the order the issues have got worse and now they are 3 weeks in arrears. You can jump ships and use the other more certain deadly clause.
The tenancy officer should never be talking about evictions. This is not a function of Tenancy Services. It is a function of the Department of courts. All they should be talking about is enforcement orders the translate into money orders and termination orders. They can also talk about work orders.
Incidently if you ask for a work order to say remove rubbish or fix something like a window, then you should also ask for a conpensatory money order associated with the work order. The reason for this is that money can then be translated into weeks of rent and be used as part of the section 55 or 56 so many weeks in arrears to get rid of the tenant.

Great stuff eh.