Tribunal decisions interfering with landlords rents

The tenant successfully argued to the tribunal the weekly rent of $730 for her three-bedroom property in West Auckland’s Rānui was above market rent by a substantial amount.

Her evidence included Ranui market rent gathered from Tenancy Services bond data, which found $580 was the median rent and $645 the upper rent. The adjudicator ordered the woman’s landlord to reduce the rent to $610 a week.

Chand says this interference by the tribunal is creeping socialism.

“In his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments, famous 18th-century philosopher and economist, Adam Smith, proposed the idea of the ‘invisible hand’, whereby markets regulate themselves due to competition, supply and demand, and self-interest.