Call for boarding house registry

A registry for boarding houses would help protect the most vulnerable people from becoming victims of mistreatment and neglect by dodgy landlords, MPs were told today.

In an appearance before a parliamentary social services select committee today, Wellington regional public health adviser Clare Aspinall said a register could be used to monitor problems at boarding houses and ensure tenants were not left to live in squalor.

The committee is looking into allegations taxpayer funds are sustaining flea-ridden, unsafe and dirty accommodation through welfare payments.

Ms Aspinall said a registry would enable problems at boarding houses to be approached proactively, rather than with the current complaints-based system.

"Some groups feel they have not the capacity to complain about the standards in boarding houses without actually being evicted," Ms Aspinall said.

A registry would also help keep track of people who might be left homeless in emergencies like pandemics or earthquakes.

"In Christchurch many boarding houses in the central city were destroyed and that put a lot of pressure on the social services and there are people now sleeping on the street," she said.

"It would be good to have registries so health agencies and emergency response agencies can do their work effectively."

University of Otago's Kate Amore, who works on a housing and health research programme, said she was also concerned people living in boarding houses long-term were being deprived of many rights as tenants.

"If you renting an apartment you have to be given 21 days notice, but if you live in a boarding house you only have to be given only 48 hours," Dr Amore said.

If a tenant caused damage or threatened people, a landlord had to address to the tenancy tribunal, but people living in boarding houses could be evicted immediately.

The current laws provided the least protection for the most vulnerable people, Dr Amore said.

Labour Party MP Moana Mackey pointed out that animal boarding houses had higher standards to comply with than those for people.

They had to provide "a comfortable shelter, bereft from distress, access to diagnoses and treatment of disease and bereft of hunger and malnutrition" and apply a raft of standards, while there were hardly any for boarding houses, she said.

However, Hawke's Bay Property Association member Mike Butler called for less regulations, saying red tape was one of the reasons many landlords were reluctant to upgrade their boarding houses.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley said he accepted there was a lot to do to fix the boarding house situation.

"The reason National supported having the inquiry was that we were concerned that there were some boarding houses which had pretty poor conditions for tenants," he said.

"With the Residential Tenancy Act changes last year we made sure that they had rights, the tenants had rights just as the landlords or boarding house owners had rights, but those Act changes didn't extend as far as the Health Act and Local Government Act issues."