ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF
Judith Collins and Jacinda Ardern talk about the new tenancy laws expected to pass this week. (Video first published August 4, 2020)
A group of Wellington students signed a $1040 per week lease for a four-bedroom flat, only to find one of the bedrooms was also the lounge. Third-year law and psychology student Emily Cooper, 20, and her three flatmates signed the lease and handed over a $4160 bond sight-unseen because they were working full time in Auckland over the summer. They feared they would miss out if they waited. “We were getting very desperate because the term was about to start, and we still didn t have a place,” Cooper said.
ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF
Nikki Prier and her 15-year-old son Cole were given a 90-day eviction notice from their three-bedroom house in Wainuiomata, where they have lived for seven years, the day before rental laws changed.
A Wainuiomata mother and her son face eviction and homelessness following major changes to tenancy laws. Nikki Prier and her son, Cole, were served notice to leave their home of seven years the day before laws changed to ban no-cause evictions.
Stuff has spoken to dozens of tenants throughout the Wellington region, who hold similar fears after being given notice in the days before the law change. At least one service reported a 60 per cent increase in tenants seeking help with no-cause terminations over the last three months compared with the same period last year.