An Auckland landlord who still has tenants despite almost $180,000 in fines has prompted calls for a revamp of our rental system.
Widharni Iskander "deliberately and knowingly" failed to lodge bond payments in 81 cases, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said last week.Â
However, there is no legal provision that prevents her from serving as a landlord.
Property Managers Institute Chairwoman Karen Withers told Mike Hosking we should be looking at the system in place in Wales, which requires a license for someone to be a property manager.Â
"It's basically a verification of what good landlords are already doing, so it's just ticking off that they are doing what they are doing. It's rather simple."
Withers says licensing isn't an instant fix, but it would help.
"Bad eggs will always be bad eggs, but what a landlording system could potentially do is stop them from carrying on doing it."
She says we'd have to ensure any licensing scheme wouldn't exacerbate our housing shortage, but the Welsh system avoided those issues.Â
"It doesn't need to onerous. It's just proving they are good and proper landlords."Â
In 2016, Iskander was found to be renting out illegally converted garages for well above market rent during the peak of the housing crisis.
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