Greens baselessly sully landlord reputations

The Greens need to establish facts instead of sullying the reputations of Wellington landlords, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“James Shaw is sullying the reputation of landlords by publically reckoning that they’re charging evacuated tenants rent, without providing any evidence or names of affected buildings. In fact, he couldn’t even tell Mike Hosking if this was against the law or not.

“It took all of 30 seconds to check the rules around this. Rent charges should stop if a building is uninhabitable. If landlords continue to demand rent, tenants can go to the Tenancy Tribunal.

“If James Shaw has had tenants contact him with these sorts of issues, he should direct them to the Tribunal rather than using major media outlets to make vague, uninformed accusations about landlords of unnamed buildings.

“This kind of flippant scaremongering drags down the reputation of rule-abiding landlords who already have it bloody hard as they deal with the aftermath of an earthquake.

“He should also check the law and figure out what his party would actually do in Government about these situations before he goes to the media. That way landlords and tenants would actually know what they’d be getting if they voted Green.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media