2 days ago
Migrant tenants 'easy prey' for landlords
A migrant worker being charged $250 a week to couch-surf in Queenstown is an example of ongoing abuse in the town, a social leader says.
Queenstown Citizens Advice Bureau manager Tracy Pool said some houses packed in migrant workers in conditions that risked safety and hygiene, including people on couches and in bunk beds, with few bathrooms.
The revelation comes the day after the Tenancy Tribunal slapped Queenstown landlord James Truong with a $113,723 fine for housing 22 tenants — mostly migrant workers — in an unconsented, unsafe five-bedroom boarding house.
The tenants were living in the house, two garages and a shed. The buildings were missing smoke alarms, did not comply with Healthy Homes Standards and the electricity system was overloaded.
Mr Truong had been given warnings by the Queenstown Lakes District Council and the government's Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT) since 2020.
TCIT national manager Brett Wilson said Mr Truong had known the rules, but ignored them and the tenants were in a "vulnerable situation ... with little knowledge of their rights".
Mr Truong was also required to pay back 40% of rent paid by the tenants while the building was being operated as an unconsented boarding house.
Ms Pool said that migrant workers on low wages who wanted a room to themselves were being charged $400 a week plus bills, making it hard for them to survive.
"If you're paying under $350 it is considered cheap."
She said migrant workers were often from the Philippines or India, and were easy prey for greedy head tenants or landlords because the workers wanted to live as cheaply as possible so they could send as much money as possible to their families at home.
"It makes it so much harder because it does make them so much more vulnerable to people who take advantage of them," she said.
Ms Pool said she knew of a case where a company had decided to stop taking responsibility for staff accommodation in a rented house and had transferred the head tenancy to one of its managers, who had then hiked rents and brought in bunk beds.
"He took advantage of the shortage of accommodation going into the winter season, to make as much money as he could."
Ms Pool said it was difficult to know the scale of the problem.
"It's really difficult to say, but there is always pressure every winter season and that's when things can go haywire."
Her message to landlords and head tenants was "don't do it. It's wrong and immoral to take advantage of people like this".
