Bad tenants to be named and shamed

[MotherBear]

Due to uncertainty regarding copyright laws, I'm changing my policy of posting news articles to include a link to the relevant site the article has come from. ?I guess the news providers would prefer folks visited their site to read the info rather than have spoilsports like me posting them for all to see. ?Sorry for any inconvenience.

Website to name and shame bad tenants
Wednesday January 10, 2007
By Anne Gibson ?

Tenants who trash rental properties or refuse to pay the rent will soon be named on a Government-run website.

In the next few weeks, Associate Justice Minister Clayton Cosgrove is expected to announce the launch of a new online service for Tenancy Tribunal rulings so the activities of landlords and tenants can be monitored.

Last January, the tribunal released a string of decisions showing up landlords for hounding tenants via cellphones and emails, harassing and badgering them with notes and by moving their possessions, blocking vehicle access and demanding rent from employers.

Read the rest of the story here .

[MotherBear]

The tenants bite back.

Tenants strike back with own website
5:00AM Wednesday February 14, 2007
By Anne Gibson

Tenants who want to make their renting experiences public are being encouraged to post comments about their landlords and property managers on a website.
But the site has raised the ire of a landlords' group, which says it allows tenants to bad-mouth landlords.

John Oldfield said his new website - landlordcheck.co.nz - was not a "name and shame" site but an attempt to promote the idea that tenants were customers who should be treated well.

"A lot of landlords have poor attitudes towards tenants," he said, citing one comment posted on a property investment website which said: "We often have a certain level of disdain for tenants, we look down on them and pity the way they have to pay us rent because they can't organise their own finances to be able to purchase a property of their own."

Oldfield said such attitudes were pervasive and should change.

More here .