News Flash of Importance to the Rental Property Industry

[TheLiberalLeft]

Keith - do you have any stats available to show how many landlords rent their places out under a registered company? And for those that do not (and therefore rent as private individuals) do you not have any concerns re privacy?

[SuperDad]

So nothing to worry about in my opinion - there would be little benefit to landlords to view the positive information anyway.

As it is worded, the proposed amendment makes no distinction beetween negative and positive reporting. It simply proposes that there should be one class of information reported, which encompasses both negative and positive. Because positive infor would be reported alongside negative info, and positive info is more "revealing", there will be a blanket restriction on LLs gaining access to credit information.

That is exactly why my submission is that the distinction between negative and positive credit info needs to be preserved, so that LLs can have access to the former and not the latter.

Paul.

[Propoholic]

Martin Evans (NZPIF President) comments posted on APIA website.

NZPIF: How will the proposed changes to the Credit Reporting Privacy Code affect landlords?
posted August 06 2010

To all Property Investor Association members

You may have heard recently that the Privacy Commissioner was seeking to stop Landlords’ from obtaining credit checks on prospective Tenants’ as well as restricting Tribunal Orders from appearing on credit checks. Unfortunately the wording of the proposal was ambiguous.

The NZPIF have a long held relationship with the Privacy Commission and have contacted them directly to clarify the situation.

THE COMMISSIONER (A RENTAL PROPERTY OWNER HERSELF) HAS CONFIRMED THAT NOTHING WILL CHANGE REGARDING LANDLORDS' ABILITY TO OBTAIN CREDIT CHECKS.

The only restriction applying to Landlords’ is that positive information will now be made available to credit reporting agencies, however they will not be able to pass this positive information onto Landlords’. This is not seen to be a problem as we have not had access to this information previously anyway and it is not greatly applicable to our needs.

Concern over not obtaining Tenancy Tribunal information has also been clarified. Tribunal orders will still appear on credit checks, however they are also available freely through Government websites. The NZPIF lobbied for many years to make Tribunal orders publically available and would be extremely concerned if this was taken away.

Tenancy Tribunal order can be accessed through the department of Building and Housing website, www.DBH.govt.nz or at www.tenancytribunal.govt.nz

Many PIA members are concerned by the proposed changes and would appreciate having their concerns put aside as quickly as possible.



Kind regards



Martin Evans

President

New Zealand Property Investors Federation

[SuperDad]

Hopefully this can be confirmed in writing because, at the end of the day, all it will take is a stroke of the pen to put all credit info out of the reach of LLs.

[Perry]

Why on earth is 'positive' (creditworthiness) information to
be withheld? It makes no sense at all, to me. Suppose a LL
had two short-list/final applications. Neither had any bad/
negative credit report data, but one had a lot of favourable,
positive credit information. Why should a PM/LL not have
access to that sort of detail, to enable an informed decision
to be made?

Indeed, why should the applicant with lots of positive info
be disadvantaged vis-a-vis the one with no such positive
or 'neutral' detail?

Bloody socialists!
.

[One]

I like the positive/negative split approach. yes, it could disadvantage people with good credit records, but I think the privacy issue overwhelms that.

The other thing is, what about using credit report companies to chase debtors, i.e. to get a new address? The positive info is just as relevant as the negative there, given that all you want is the address!

I'll be submitting that:
- the current wording is ambiguous
- landlords, including private landlords, should have access to negative info
- people who've lodged a debt should have access to contact info, whatever its source

[Andrew]

Information from Privacy Commission

I contacted the Privacy Commission again yesterday and asked 3 questions.

1. Is it being proposed that Landlords will not be able to obtain credit checks
2. If Landlords can obtain credit checks, will there be any restriction on the information they currently receive?
3. Will credit reporting agencies be able to supply Tenancy Tribunal Orders as part of their credit report to landlords as they currently do

The email reply I received was marked private and confidential, however the answers to the first two questions were effectively "no". We now have this in writing.

It appears that they had not considered the supply of Tenancy Tribunal orders specifically in the proposed amendments, however their view was that Tenancy Tribunal Orders would be considered "Judgments" and reported as such by credit reporting agencies.

A number of years ago the NZ Property Investors' Federation and Associations around the country fought hard to retain these rights for Landlords and we certainly wouldn't want to go backwards.

The Assurances we have from the Privacy Commission is that our existing situation will remain. We are still putting in a submission to outline why we need to have the right to obtain credit checks and why the existing information we are allowed access to is the bare minimum we require to determine the financial risk in taking on any particular tenant.

We have also said how important it is that existing credit reporting agencies are not restricted from providing any of the information that they currently supply to landlords.

This is an important issue, so it would be good to have as many submissions as possible.

The NZ Property Investors Federation has direct access to many key decision makers. Much of this access is through the work of volunteers, but there are also some paid employees and there are a lot of expenses in being the industry voice.

By joining your local Property Investors Association you not only get access to wonderful, independent information and networking opportunities, you also contribute to the Federations ability to lobby on your industries behalf. We need more funds to do this effectively, so please join your local Property Investors Association. Support yourselves and your industry at www.NZPIF.org.nz

[Perry]

Vagueness & Ambiguity

Andrew - can I please have your observations on
my posted comments in or relating to these items:

Issues

What issues?

In some strictly defined situations the information may be made
available to prospective landlords . .

How are strictly defined situations detailed?
By whom?
.

[Andrew]

Hi Perry

I think he was referring to being able to report Tenancy Tribunal decisions and 10 day notices.

I'm not sure how they define this, but it will be the Privacy Commissioner who does it. As I said previously, they have told us that everything available to us now will continue under the new proposals.

[tallica1]

Final question: why is this only being bought to our attention now, with a submission deadline of 13 August, when the call for submissions went out on 16 June? I got notification of this from TINZ on the monthly statement I received YESTERDAY - you think that TINZ wouyld be more active when it comes to something that will wipe out their businses.

I have just been informed that the principals of TINZ said the problem lies with the Privacy Commissioner's Office not consulting the industry in any way. These amendments were not promulgated publicly and the whole debt collection industry only had a meeting to talk collectively on Monday 2.8.10 when it was first noticed.

[tallica1]

But does that exclude unregistered credit providers?

As soon as a tenant fails to pay rent, I am providing them credit, therefore I am a credit provider.

If a tenancy ends and the bond does not cover the outstanding rent & damage, I become a debt collector. The debt is recognised by the courts.

Under The Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2004 - Part 1 - subclause 5 - a debt collector is defined as an agency that carries on the business of collecting debt.

[tallica1]

Hi all,

This system would see a distinction between two different kinds of credit information about an individual:
1.“Negative” information – defaults, judgements, collections and bankruptcies, and
2.“Positive” information – type of credit, credit limit, credit provider, account status.
By providing landlords access to only negative information about an individual’s credit record (as is currently the case), there is no increased risk of inaccuracy and misuse of an individual’s credit information, and no further intrusion upon that individual’s privacy.

Paul.

I just wonder if this is so limiting - what about the ratings you can put on tenants on TINZ - you can get orders for monies owing but does that give an indication of the weekly hassles of ringing up a tenant that doesn't pay every week. Wouldn't you like to rate that tenant as a poor payer or what about one that is an excellent payer and you are sad to see him go but want to give him an excellent rating - again as you can do and get back from TINZ - where does that fit in these determinations.

Why shouldn't landlords know about what credit accounts a tenant has contracted himself to .... will that give you an indication if they are too far indebted to pay as much rent as you are asking?

[tallica1]

Tenancy Tribunal order can be accessed through the department of Building and Housing website, www.DBH.govt.nz or at www.tenancytribunal.govt.nz
Martin Evans
President
New Zealand Property Investors Federation

It should also be stressed that the DBH:

• does not host all Tenancy Tribunal orders, it is at adjudicators discretion whether or not the order will go online.
• Mediated Orders are not stored which account for around 50% of all orders.
• orders will only stay online for 3 years - by the statute of limitations debts can be collected/enforced up to 6 yrs from the date of incurring the debt.
• It is unfair to individuals who pay up their debts, as the system is not updated.
• No date of births are stored against the orders, therefore LL's/PM's can not positively identify the person on the order (which we have seen a lot of) therefore the tenant can discredit the order.
• The CRPC requires higher degrees of data matching (these date of births) for debtors on credit reporting system. How does the Min. of Justice get away with this allowing anyone to go on a 'fishing trip' on their system is beyond us.

Note: The Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2004 (CRPC) restricts retention of debts to 5 years on credit reporting systems.

[Son of G]

Definition of "being in the business of collect debt".

Under The Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2004 - Part 1 - subclause 5 - a debt collector is defined as an agency that carries on the business of collecting debt.

Do I need to be chasing the debts of others of be in the business of debt collecting?

Either way, how many debts a year do I need to be collecting to considered to be in the business of collecting debt?

[Perry]

My guess is that (in your case) collecting debt is
an ancillary activity to another business activity.
.