Finally, consequences

Chris Bishop announced:

“In March this year Ministers said enough was enough. We formally instructed Kāinga Ora to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework, and to strengthen their management of disruptive tenants.  

“Three months on, it is encouraging to see some green shoots of change beginning to emerge. For example, in the past three months 14 Kāinga Ora tenancies have been terminated due to disruptive behaviour or persistent rent arrears. Kāinga Ora also has an additional 25 applications to end tenancies for these reasons awaiting decisions by the Tenancy Tribunal. This is compared to only eight tenancies terminated for disruptive behaviour or rent arrears the whole of 2023. 

“We’ve also seen an increase in Section 55A formal warning notices issued to tenants for disruptive behaviour, with 80 issued in the past three months compared to 13 for the same period last year.”  

People behave better when there are consequences for bad behaviour. It isn’t rocket science.