My Account
Women’s Centre Rodney is urging women to thoroughly check potential boarders and flatmates before renting out rooms.
Centre manager Colleen Julian says high accommodation costs force many women to consider renting out a spare room.
“They might not necessarily want to have a boarder in their home, but financial circumstances often force them into that position,” she says.
This can make women vulnerable if they end up with a tenant who becomes abusive, refuses to pay their share of the bills or turns out to be impossible to live with.
Ms Julian prefers not to go into details, but the centre has had to deal with a number of “horror stories” in recent months.
She points out it can be difficult to evict an unsuitable tenant, and even if they are successfully evicted, they always know where the woman who evicted them lives.
Sometimes the woman herself has had to leave her home to escape a nightmare living environment.
Ms Julian says women can protect themselves by adopting a business-like approach and performing thorough checks on potential tenants. After speaking to Tenancy Services, the police and Ministry of Justice, she has come up with some suggestions:
If you live in the same house as the person you are renting a room to then you are not automatically covered by the Residential Tenancies Act. To be covered by the Act, it’s important for the tenant and landlord to make an agreement with each other stating that the Act will apply to their living arrangements (see tenancy.govt.nz/starting-a-tenancy/who-is-protected). If things turn sour and the tenant is covered by the Act, the Tenancy Tribunal can make an order terminating the tenancy for non-payment of rent, damage to property or assault.
Insist on references, such as from pervious landlords and employers, and speak to the person providing the reference. Remember, a letter might be fake.
Ask the prospective tenant to provide a copy of their credit report from a credit agency.
Check out the Ministry of Justice website. If there has been a Tenancy Tribunal finding against a tenant within the last three years then it will be recorded.
When meeting a prospective tenant for the first time, meet away from the home and take a friend along. Afterwards, ask the friend’s opinion of the prospective tenant.
Ask the prospective tenant if they are willing to undergo a police criminal record check. A refusal could be a red flag.
Perform your own background check by googling the prospective tenant’s name and look them up on social media.
Insist on rent or board being paid weekly so that it does not fall months into arrears.
Consider taking women boarders only.
