PROTECTION OF BOARDERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1939, Page 9

PROTECTION OF BOARDERS

DURING EXHIBITION PERIOD. GOVERNMENT ACTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. In pursuance of provision? under the Fair Rents Amendment Act. passed last session, to regulate the charges in respect of residential accommodation, regulations have been made and were gazetted yesterday dealing with the question of residential accommodation situated in Wellington. Johnsonville. ■ Pctone and Lower Hutt. “Numerous complaints have been received by the Department of Labour from boarders in boarding-houses and hotels regarding the increased charges to be made during the period of the exhibition in the Wellington district,’ says an official statement issued by the Government. "In some cases boarders who have been resident in boardinghouses and hotels have been given notice of considerably increased charges as from November 8. In other cases, boarders have been given notice to quit in order that casual guests may be accommodated at higher rates."

The regulations apply only to residential accommodation afforded under a contract that had been in force for one month or more on the date of the making of the regulations, November 1. The regulations do not purport to cover casual accommodation but are designed to protect boarders (whether in private homes, boarding-houses, private hotels or licensed hotels), who may be regarded as more or less permanent and who might be liable to be ejected or subjected to increased charges during the period of the Centennial exhibition.

Except as specifically mentioned, no landlord, that is, the person by whom the residential accommodation is afforded. is entitled to demand more than the standard charge for the accommodation provided and any amount overpaid may be recovered from the landlord within six months after payment.

For the purpose of the regulations the standard charge is the charge as at June 1. 1939. and where accommodation is let for the first time after June 1, the standard charge is the charge at the first letting. If the accommodation was not let on June 1. but was let at some prior time, the standard charge is the charge at which it was let on the last day when it was let.