More Kāinga Ora tenants have been evicted for disruptive behaviour in the first four months of this financial year than over the previous two full years due to an improved system to tackle problems.
Data provided to Stuff under the Official Information Act shows that 17 Kāinga Ora tenancies were terminated due to disruptive behaviour between July and October this year, compared to 17 in the 2023-2024 year and just two in the 2022-2023 year.
Kāinga Ora, which has about 73,000 tenancies, puts the increases down to a new approach implemented in early 2024.
Just a very small number of tenants are actually taken to the Tenancy Tribunal by Kāinga Ora seeking termination due to disruptive behaviour.
Before a dispute reaches the tribunal Kāinga Ora tackles disruptive tenants by issuing warning notices (or Section 55A notices under the Residential Tenancies Act). The number of warnings issued by Kāinga Ora has increased dramatically in the past three years.
In the 2022-2023 year there were 57 warning issued. That jumped to 202 in the 2023-2024 year.
A whopping 375 warnings were issued between July 1 and October 31 this year.
If a tenant receives three warnings within a 90-day period, then Kāinga Ora applies to the Tenancy Tribunal to end their tenancy.
Kāinga Ora general manager of national services Nick Maling said the organisation implemented a new approach to manage and strengthen its approach to disruptive behaviour in early 2024.
“We have asked our frontline teams to make earlier and more frequent use of the tools available to us as a landlord to resolve tenancy challenges like disruptive behaviour, unpaid rent, damage, and abandonment – and our increased use of Tenancy Tribunal reflects this,” he said.
“As a result of these changes, applications for tenancy termination due to disruptive behaviour have increased significantly. In the first four months of this financial year, we have ended 17 tenancies for this reason,” Maling said.
Applications to the tribunal were a last resort, when other approaches hadn’t worked, or weren’t considered appropriate.
Most issues involving disruptive behaviour were resolved by moving the tenants with their agreement. The number of these “agreed relocations” went from 198 in 2022-23 to 243 in 2023-24. In the first four months of the 2024-2025 financial year there were 82 agreed relocations.
When disruptive tenants object to being relocated, Kāinga Ora can force them to move. There were eight such “required relocations” in 2022-2023, ten in 2023-2024, and there was one in the first four months of the current financial year.
Tenants were taken to the tribunal for a raft of reasons by Kāinga Ora, such as seeking the removal of pets, rent arrears, concerns around the condition of a property, or costs for damages.
There were more than 73,000 Kāinga Ora tenancies in the 2023-24 year, of which 4.7% were the subject of applications to the tribunal, double the 2.2% the previous year.
“Wherever possible, we attempt mediation with customers before proceeding to a Tenancy Tribunal hearing. This is generally successful, with around 90% of all Kāinga Ora applications resolved in mediation,” Maling said.
Data on the number of tenancy terminations prior to 2022 was not centrally recorded and Kāinga Ora said it could not be collated without substantial collation and research, so a request for that information was declined under the Official Information Act.
- Stuff
