Call for compulsory tenant insurance

By Steve Hart

His call comes after the government announced proposals to make tenants liable to pay the equivalent of four weeks rent to cover any damage caused to property.

“It sounds good initially. But carpet is pretty expensive so I don’t think four weeks’ rent is enough to cover that cost,” says Chin. “I don’t know who thought up the idea of restricting compensation to just four weeks’ rent – clearly they have plucked the number out of the air. Why they have not proposed five, six or seven weeks I can’t imagine.”

He says the proposed change is being put forward in response to a fire caused by a student in Otago some years ago. Chin says the student left a cooker on causing the apartment to burn down. The insurance company says all the students registered on the tenancy agreement are jointly liable for the replacement cost.