Examining the Tenancy Tribunal again

Mediation process - itemise, work shit out, onerous and difficult, at that point… unfriendly emails, building an atmosphere of hostility, not holistic + humanistic. Mediation process itself. Just real crappy process. No wonder tenants don’t use it, intentionally unusable and confrontational. Adversarial process. Investigative model, burden falls on judge, if the tenancy tribunal was for the tenancy to continue afterwards. Collaborative vs adversarial. 

Tenancy Tribunal is designed in a way that subtlety focus on the landlords… thats how its happened to be designed. Address the imbalance, the obstacles. Itemised list… of financial penalty? Tenancy tribunal hearing. The district court… does it even need to be like that? How does that affect a tenant in this process. Redesigning the process. 

flatfish.co.nz .com 

A business/social enterprise, you can submit a maintenance request through this, use of tradesmen compensation etc.  Third party?? 

So question is how could you design the tenancy tribunal process to be more towards keeping and preserving a tenancy? 

• what specifically about it makes it serve landlords and not serve tenants? 
• how could the process be changed to help tenants better? 
• What other external media could help tenants in their tribunal process? 

Whakatinana Shared Moment Week 7

Whakatinana Shared Moment Week 7 Notes

Redesign the system…. Campaign vs experience design/service… which one is more helpful? Unclaimed bond…. campaigning vs service. what would a service look like. Letting fees - encourages property management companies to do short term tenancies. no increase in quality. a Data angle…  Service design around an advocacy service.

Theories

User centred design

Pathos logos and ethos

Political activism 

Maybe look at other examples of engagement? doing things vs saying things.

Empowering tenants…. group motions, collective vs individual, building a relationship with tenant & landlord.  Plan out the way forwards. Narrowing down the thing to a smaller scope. 

2nd interaction

Tenancy tribunal  - more empathetic, and more accessible for people…. mediation step. more integral in their life… a connective step, relationship between tenant and landlord. 

Photos from class

Interview with Robert of Renters United Wellington

Today I went and interviewed Robert Whitaker, of the organisation "Renters United Wellington". It was very helpful on getting a picture of the myriad of problems facing renters in Wellington. Robert also happened to be a web designer at Chrometoaster, and so offered me some valuable insights on the opportunities to tackle aspects of the problem through design.

Notes from the interview below.

What prompted you to form Wellington Renters United?

5 or 6 people started the organisation, activist things… Keep MMP campaign… “left”… politics outside of the actual parliament building. thinking about why the housing problem/election went that way. Not enough grassroots organisations for people to turn to outside of the govt, nowhere to express politics outside of parliament. 

—what could you build a platform around? not representing renters. 

Renters organisations.. 

Are there any similar, or associated, services around Wellington like yours? 

not really much of them, a few have survived. The TPA, Christchurch. One in Auckland. Individual cases, not campaigning around renting. 

What do you hope to achieve with this organisation?  (campaign angle)

Don’t want to have constraints around what they want to see. For all renters vs case specific renting scenarios. Power from the userbase… 350 - 400, Broader engagement…1000 followers/likers.  The TINZ database of bad tenant… 

Wanna make renting better for everybody.. quality of rental homes etc. Make people more secure in rental properties. Campaigning, local party pressure. Affordability, cost of renting. discrimination sort of stuff. Mainly in Wellington. Local election.  VUWSA..

Design angle…

Process design service design. Collateral. A brand.  Angling for the landlords? 

Real challenge… property management companies.. Problem in wellington is there is no market incentive. Enforcement of rights. 

Informal…

14 day notice

Mediation

Nuclear bomb solution 

Enforcement. 

Improve advocacy services for tenants. 

Unclaimed bond…. campaigning vs service. what would a service look like. 

Design… you can design a good fire exit sign, but there has to be a fire exit.  get that from the ministry of business .

Letting fees - encourages property management companies to do short term tenancies. no increase in quality. a Data angle…  Service design around an advocacy service.. 

Mediation process - itemise, work shit out, onerous and difficult, at that point… unfriendly emails, building an atmosphere of hostility, not holistic + humanistic. Mediation process itself. Just real crappy process. No wonder tenants don’t use it, intentionally unusable and confrontational. Adversarial process. Investigative model, burden falls on judge, if the tenancy tribunal was for the tenancy to continue afterwards. Collaborative vs adversarial. 

tenancy tribunal is designed in a way that subtlety focus on the landlords… thats how its happened to be designed. Address the imbalance, the obstacles. Itemised list… of financial penalty? Tenancy tribunal hearing. The district court… does it even need to be like that? How does that affect a tenant in this process. Redesigning the process. 

flatfish.co.nz .com 

A business/social enterprise, you can submit a maintenance request through this, use of tradesmen compensation etc. 

University of Otago school of public health

home truths - summarises the case and the situation 

Branz Limited.  building research organisation in NZ - survey of building qualities. 

interview flatmate about Tenancy Tribunal experience. 

Contact Tenancy Services, an adjudicator and a mediator, the bond database, how many rental properties in Wellington. 

Handy Quotes

Quotes from "Renting in NZ: perspectives from tenant advocates" 

Elinor Chisholm, Philippa Howden-Chapman & Geoff Fougere
2016

Currently, around a third of New Zealand’s households, and half its
population live in rental accommodation. The proportion of tenant
households is growing. Tenant advocates, who are a first port of
call for tenants experiencing difficulties in their housing situation,
can provide unique insight into the experience of renting in New
Zealand. This article presents key themes generated from semistructured
interviews with tenant advocates. Tenants are confronted
with issues of poor housing quality, insecure housing, high rents
relative to income, lack of autonomy, and difficulty asserting their
legislative rights. These aspects of renting in New Zealand are likely to
have adverse effects on health. Tenant advocates play an important
role in supporting tenants to better housing. Their knowledge of
the relationship between a landlord and tenant, particularly in times
of trouble, means they can provide unique perspectives on policy
solutions.
In all, 44,000 people, or about One in every 100 New Zealanders, is homeless. A number which has grown since 2001
(Amore 2016). Some homeless people stay in rental homes; almost a fifth of rented properties
are crowded (18.7%), far more than the proportion of owner-occupied homes (5.7%
of those with mortgages, 3.5% of those owned freehold) (Ministry of Health 2014, p. 15).
Fourth, there is strong evidence showing the negative impact on health of poor housing
conditions such as cold, damp, and crowding (Howden-Chapman et al. 2007, 2008;
Baker et al. 2013; Shortland 2015).
The support of advocates could make a great deal of difference in improving outcomes for tenants.
The lack of security affected tenants’ experiences of their homes. One participant
noted that ‘you talk to people with nil money and they say “why would I plant vegetables,
because the landlord could turf me out in 90 days and by the time they’ve grown I’m not
going to be there”’
Another issue identified by participants was the lack of autonomy tenants had in the
home. This meant that tenants had to go without certain privileges enjoyed by owner-
4 E. CHISHOLM ET AL.
occupiers, such as having pets, and making changes to the home and property. As one participant
put it,
Renter kids don’t have dogs and dogs help kids. Those choices are gone. It’s double privilege.
You’re renting so it’s not even that option of saying ‘have we got enough money for a dog?’
You wouldn’t build a tree hut. [It’s] not going to your kids and saying ‘what colour shall we
paint your room?’ The little things that actually are a part of growing up, handyperson’s stuff.
There’s a whole lot of stuff that’s not measured that happens when you’ve got your own place.
(Interview 1a)
‘People don’t assert their rights … They don’t know their
rights’ (Interview 6). Another noted that ‘Many of the tenants are not well informed
and don’t have the capacity or ability to advocate’ (Interview 3a). One participant
reflected that cultural mores had an impact on the likelihood that people would
report problems with their home or tenancy: ‘A lot of the Pacific people in particular
find it very hard, and although they’re suffering, and they don’t like what’s happening,
they find it hard to speak out’ (Interview 2b). Another put the issue partly down to educational
inequalities. She stated that ‘If you’ve had a reasonable education it helps you to
be articulate and that helps confidence so you can speak up … If people feel inadequate
or afraid, they’ll be less likely to protest’ (Interview 7). 
One participant, who often worked with students on short-term tenancies, said ‘They can’t be bothered. They’ll be moving on somewhere else’ (Interview 4a). When tenants did decide to negotiate with their landlord or pursue legal action, it was very time-consuming.
Quotes from “Generation Rent” by S&S Eaqub.
“Owning one’s own home has been a rite of passage for generations of New Zealanders.”
“Not owning a home in NZ often means being bereft of both social and financial security.”
“The modern generation has experienced a very tough economic adulthood.” 
Renting has not traditionally been part of the kiwi dream; it has always seemed like a second-rate option. 
A lot of rental housing is in very poor condition, and tenants have few rights and little security. 
But if people have become more accepting of renting, often this is only because they are resigned to not owning a home. Generation Rent may be united in renting but most are not doing it by choice: they are forced to rent - forced into what is currently a second-class option…” 
Quote from Mark Bennett
“One aspect of renting often mentioned is security of tenure. This means a tenant’s ability to choose to remain or leave the house they are renting. When asked, tenants usually indicate that they want the option to stay, saying that this would provide them with a more stable home – and better outcomes for their community connections, psychological and physical health, education, and finances.
In New Zealand, some security of tenure is achieved by tenants and landlords agreeing to a fixed term lease, generally 12 months. Otherwise, the landlord must usually provide the tenant with 90 days' notice that the tenancy is being terminated.
This contrasts starkly with the situation in jurisdictions where tenants are given a number of years of secure tenure; for example, in New Zealand discussions of renters' rights there has been a focus on Germany's strong protections for tenants, under which tenants may stay indefinitely (with very limited exceptions).”
“The landlord has the means to purchase a house and to use it as a financial asset. The tenant has likely been forced to rent rather than to own, but is trying to make the house their home. The control that the law relating to security of tenure provides them should reflect this.”

Context	Central Proposition	Aim	Theories + Methodology	Literature
Context - renters and tenants in NZ have little to no rights, and the rights that they do have are often ignored and not enforced. This leads to a less than ideal living situation for many, if not most, renters in New Zealand. As a quickly growing demographic something has to be done…	How can we empower tenants through design?  —How can we motivate landlords to be better through design???	To empower tenants through design, and maybe challenge the landlords and tell them why its good to be a good landlord coz then you get good tenants?  a tenants rights campaign a landlords symbiotic relationship campaign i dont fucken know	user centred design? political design..? social innovation and design activism	got a bunch of literature on the subject lol

Existing Precedents

Services and media for tenants that already exist.

Precedent - Tenants Protection Association (Christchurch.) 

An organisation sponsored/funded by lots of other random businesses and charities, to protect and advise tenants in New Zealand. Not funded by the Govt. 

Strengths - On the side of the tenant, specifically for tenants. Free.  

Weaknesses - Specific to only one region of New Zealand. 

Opportunities - Expand to other regions, use what is working from this? 

Precedent- The Tenancy Tribunal
A part of the "tenancy services" provided by government, specifically for mediating cases and solving disputes between landlord + tenants. 

"The Tenancy Tribunal can formalise what is agreed at mediation, or can make a ruling on an issue that can’t be resolved and issue an order that is legally binding on the parties involved in the dispute."
A division of the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment.

Strengths - A division of government - has funding and stuff, official, etc. Well established thing?
Weaknesses - Long and onerous process, nothing gets done, by the time they make a decision all parties have moved out and nothing can be done? Mostly landlord geared, as mostly landlords lodge disputes against their tenants. "Of the 19,095 applications made this year, 16,808 were from landlords." thats 88%. Not geared towards supporting tenants, who are the more vulnerable group. 
Tenants record with the tenancy tribunal can be shared with landlords who can then discriminate against them. 
Opportunities - to provide a section of their service that is more tenant focused, and provide links to tenant advocates?

(http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/74855686/nzs-tenancy-tribunal-a-toothless-kitten--researcher-philippa-howdenchapman)

Precedent - Rate My Flat 
http://ratemyflat.org.nz/

Strengths - A free and "open-source" (not affiliated to any other service or organisation) service for tenants to rate their landlords and flats. A sort of counter-strike to the tenant database that landlords keep on their tenants. Anyone can join and log information. 

Weaknesses- Limited engagement... the information is not vetted. The fact that it is independent and not affiliated means limited advertising channels, and non funded by any business. 

Opportunities - An ID system to ensure that the information is accurate? 

Today's Lecture Notes