By Andrea Milner
Landlord Ron Goodwin says, “We do not need on the list those tenants who leave with a few hundred dollars owing. It is the really bad ones whose names should be readily available to landlords, together with the date and number of the relevant Tenancy Tribunal decision”.

“From time to time I get other landlords on the telephone asking if so and so was a former tenant of mine and then giving me a tirade of woe, having inherited one of my previous tenants from hell. These people know how to work the system to their advantage, and go from landlord to landlord ripping people off, knowing full well at the outset of each tenancy they will eventually be evicted.”

“Why should we have to go on and on putting up with this?”

Experienced property investor John May says some solutions include:
· Checking potential tenants more thoroughly
· Strictly monitoring tenancies on an ongoing basis
· Jumping on any small problems before they escalate
· Knowing the Tribunal system; when and how to use it, and when and how to avoid it.

Goodwin says that even with various checking and screening devices, “I find that about 4% of my tenants are tenants from hell. They are typically evicted with $1,500 to $2,000 rent owing, and typically having caused $5,000 to $12,000 worth of damage, as well as the cost of rubbish removal and cleaning, plus many hours of the landlord’s time getting the place fit for habitation again”.

“Over 90% of the damage is probably caused not by the tenant, but by undesirable types we would never let a house to, who the tenant allows to live and party on the premises.”

May says Geoff Knight of Tenancy Information New Zealand Ltd runs a “very good” tenant register system: www.tinz.net.nz; and that investor associations around the country should be encouraging their members to use this sort of register. It offers NZ Property Investors’ Federation members a 20% discount on annual membership, and Knight say the system currently has more than 36,000 tenant listings.