For many of you, a new year on campus will also mean a new student flat to live in.
As you have likely discovered by now, Dunedin has a large number of properties – including student flats – that are not warm or dry enough to keep people healthy and comfortable at a reasonable cost.
It seems somewhat ironic to me that we live in a country where, for example, if you want to have more than one dog on your property, an inspection is required to make sure your property is fit for purpose, but there are no such inspections or standards for people renting a house! There is no reason why minimum standards shouldn’t be applied to protect all consumers, including renters.
The accommodation in the area around campus was once working-class housing that has now been turned into student flats. It has been customary for some of these not to be well maintained.
Historically, many students saw it as a rite of passage to live in a cold, run-down flat while, to some extent, others were forced to live in these conditions due a lack of suitable alternative rental properties.
Over the past few years there has been considerable building and development resulting in the provision of many higher quality rentals. As a result, students who want to live close to campus now have far more choice and poor flats and poor landlords can be avoided.
That doesn’t mean, however, that any landlords are justified in letting sub-standard, cold and shoddy flats. That’s not acceptable.
The reality is that poor quality flats don’t encourage tenants to look after them. And landlords that provide high quality flats should expect them to be well cared for and not trashed. In other words, it is in both parties’ best interests to have a good quality, well-cared-for property.
To this end, the University of Otago (Wellington) is working with the Wellington and Dunedin city councils to study the effects of introducing a rental housing warrant of fitness. The WoF for rentals would include minimum standards that would need to be met for things like heating, ventilation and safety.
I see this as one tool to help further increase your choices when it comes to flatting, as well as helping to fulfil the city’s goal of making sure everyone in Dunedin lives in a warm and cosy home by 2025.
Dave Cull
Mayor of Dunedin