Complaints made about disruptive Kāinga Ora tenants are now being handled in about 13 days instead of about two months, as was happening a year ago.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop says the latest data shows public housing agency Kainga Ora (KO) is taking action against unruly tenants, leading to improved behaviour.
He says in March last year, the Government instructed the agency to end its Sustaining Tenancies Framework which had allowed tenants to stay living in a Kainga Ora home no matter how threatening or disruptive their behaviour, or how much damage they caused to the property.
“Neighbours of Kāinga Ora residents, frequently KO tenants themselves, were tired of having to put up with people who abused the privilege of a taxpayer-funded home.
“Ministers declared enough was enough, and instructed the agency to take a stronger approach to managing disruptive tenants.
“In November, 2024, Kāinga Ora received 538 complaints about disruptive behavior.
“Their frontline teams are responding to these quickly, taking action where needed, with a decision being made on each case within 15 business days in 98 per cent of cases.
“This is in stark contrast to January, 2024, when the Sustaining Tenancies Framework was still in place.
“At that time, Kāinga Ora had over 500 open complaint cases that had been sitting unresolved for an average of almost 60 days.
“Pleasingly, by December, 2024, there were just over 200 open cases in progress, with an average of 13 days for a decision to be made and action taken.”
Bishop says since July, 2024, Kāinga Ora has issued 553 Section 55A notices, which give formal warning to a tenant their behaviour is putting their tenancy at risk.
That number is 13 times more than the 41 issued during the same period last year.
“I’m particularly pleased to see this early intervention is helping spark behaviour change among those tenants who have previously been disruptive.
“The data shows first Section 55A notices made up around 83 per cent of all notices issued since July.
“Second notices made up approximately 16 per cent of all Section 55A notices issued during this period, while third notices, which can trigger the end of a tenancy, made up less than two per cent.
“This data shows that the vast majority of disruptive tenants are taking the Section 55A notices seriously and changing their behaviour to prevent receiving a second or third notice.
“And where they don’t change their behaviour, we’ll no longer put up with it.”
In the five months from July to November in 2024, 23 tenancies were ended due to abusive, threatening or disruptive behaviour, compared to only four tenancies having been ended for that reason in all of 2023.
