TO CONTROL RENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 116, 6 August 1927, Page 8

TO CONTROL RENTS

LABOUR MEMBER’S BILL INTRODUCED IN HOUSE ( THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The Fair Kents Bill, sponsored by Mr. M. J. Savage, introduced and read the first time to-day, seeks to determine what is a fair rent to be paid for dwelling houses and other building which are interpreted as meaning “any building used as an office or for the wholesale or retail sale of any article.” In the case of dwelling houses the Bill applies only to houses which have been let for £156 a year or less. FairKents Courts would be constituted to receive as evidence statutory declarations made as prescribed, and the courts would take oral evidence of parties and of witnesses called on their behalf. The court would determine fair rent at a rate of not less than the rate of interest which is, for the time being, charged upon overdrafts by the Bank of New Zealand, and not more than 21 per cent, above the lastnamed rate. All reasonable outgoings in the way of rates, insurance, etc., are included in the capital cost upon which rent is to be assessed. Penalties not exceeding £2O are provided, for breaches of the law by lessors receiving more than the fair rent prescribed by the court. Any person who refuses to let a dwelling house to any respectable and responsible applicant who has a child or children shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £SO.