Renting in Auckland: 'We're sitting ducks'
Trying to house a family of nine in Auckland means we are totally at the mercy of our landlord.
We are a family of nine. Myself and my husband, four children, plus we have an adopted child and have raised my two brothers from a young age due to my mum passing from cancer.
Because of our obvious need for a larger rental - which are few and far between - and the ever dying dream of home ownership due to the increasingly expensive property market, we are always at the mercy of landlords.
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This often varies and from past experiences could be anything from the landlord suddenly deciding to move family in, leaving us in a panic to find new accommodation, turning up without warning, not having fixed a leaky roof but still charging for the room even though we can't sleep in it, to taking every opportunity to increase our rent.
This is always notified to us in an email which usually says something along the lines of:
Rent increase notification. Please sign the form to agree to your new rental amount, or please vacate the property by (insert month here).
We have put up with nightmare tenants that our landlord has rented the back property to (they own both houses and we share a driveway). Even though we have pleaded with them to get a family in, they get more money renting it out to multiple people. It is obvious they take drugs as they are up all night and often sleep for days. They have parties, arguments, fights. It's not good for my kids.
The future is a scary one in Auckland's rental market for my family, and for others like us.
This is the second lot of tenants there. The previous ones were selling P and after lots of emails and finally a contamination test they were evicted. The new tenants aren't much of a step up but they must pay their rent because they are still there and they had trouble renting it because the landlord wants too much for what it's worth.
The increase notification I got last year, after all that had gone on, just put me over the edge. I decided to call their bluff and had highlighted the fact that we were good tenants who have never missed a rental payment, respected and looked after the property and they agreed to not increase the rent all of 2017.
This only to receive an email this month stating they have now doubled the original amount from an extra $10 to $20. We are already paying $600 a week. Most of my husband's wages goes on rent and he has to work 50 hours minimum each week or we are in serious trouble. We barely have enough left over for other necessities. It's stressful.
It will never stop and I know they have bought both properties as money-making ventures, but my family are increasingly worse off each year because of it.
We can't just up and leave as finding 5-plus bedroom homes is near impossible in Auckland.
We are sitting ducks at the mercy of a landlord who is in China most of the time so really doesn't know us at all and only communicates to us through email. The email is always met with sadness knowing that every six months we will need to pay more money we don't have, or vacate the premises.
There are very few homes that can accommodate our large family and the ones that are out there have dozens of other families in the same boat. I've found that landlords are now renting out larger homes to flatmates to increase revenue.
The future is a scary one in Auckland's rental market for my family and others like us.
Our vulnerability is a means for us to be exploited. This is our experience.
- Stuff Nation
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