Privacey Matters

Finally HNZ have released some of the information under the privacy act regarding our tenancy and I say some as there is a lot of information that has been withheld, the fact that some of the information provided actually refers to other information that has not been provided makes it pretty clear that Housing New Zealand is not playing by the rules.

We allready have a complaint in with the Privacy Commissioner and they are investigating this matter along with Housing New Zealands claims that they do not have to provide this information under the criminal disclosure act.

Fact is that disclosure is disclosure and I'm pretty sure this act is not a mechanism to be abused by government organisation so as to allow them to refuse to make available information that could paint them in a bad light. Such actions are really just an abuse of power and process.

Also keep in mind that the criminal matters are based on our alleged failure to provide HNZ with our earnings details and as such according to HNZ obtained  lower rent based on the rental assessment. This matter has nothing to do with out tenancy and HNZ's investigations team have reiterated this fact several times so there for information regarding our tenancy should be available.

When discussing the matter with the office of the privacy commissioner I asked them how would they know if HNZ was with holding information and they informed me they rely on HNZ's honesty.

Handed over the keys

We handed the keys to John Heaton who is the HNZ tenancy manager assigned by HNZ to work with us on the handover. While there he was taking photos of pretty much every scratch spot and pinprick so i suspect that although we had moved in the house some 10 years ago and the house was not in great condition when we moved in with windows broken, wall paper torn and other issues we aer going to get blamed for these issues.

But its great to finally be in a house that does not have these problems and is not so full of mould it causes health problems.

While we were doing the walk around I did capture some video of John opening the cupboards that were not repaired correctly and fell off after HNZ replaced them. as well as a few interesting comments regarding the state of the mould and paint that was flaking off the ceiling and other issues such as the rotten window frames that the tenancy tribunal stated should have been repaired in their order to HNZ.

Hollow Aplogies

Today we received a letter from our Tenancy Manger apologising for the confusion regarding the inspection but then later claiming or rather making an excuse that we had in fact arranged a meeting with he colleagues for the 6th. Apparently here colleagues arrived on the 6th and we were not home and this is why the letter was sent claiming we had not allowed access.

There are a few inconsistencies with this as,
Firstly neither my wife nor myself recall making any arrangements for the 6th and if this was requested given the history we would have requested the appointment in writing so as to have a paper trail.
Secondly I reviewed my phone records and email records and can state categorical I was here all day on the 6th with calls being made and received as early as 9:47 up to 14:56 and emails being replied to and sent from 8:21am to 7:50pm. and I'm pretty sure I did not leave home all day.

I would happily accept a genuine apology for a genuine error but given the circumstances and the continued attempts to cover up the facts I find such an apology to be conditional on us having to believe the untruths being told.

In the email Katrina does state that this recent inspection will be our last until just before we vacate the property in December so I can assume from that we will not see any further work being done to fix the issues with the house. This pretty much confirms to us that HNZ and more so Katrina has been angling for our eviction for some time.

We still have no idea how we are going to afford a new place as the rental prices are well above our combined income.

Housing New Zealand claimed we denied access

Following a the formal notification from Tenancy Tribunal in their order and a letter that forwarded to me from Housing New Zealand claiming we had denied access to the property for contractors to undertake repairs I thought it prudent to publish the transcript between myself and the Housing New Zealand contractor.

This information was provided to the Adjudicator and both the Tenancy Manager Katrina O'Connor and the Manager of the Panmure Branch Robert Redford were informed that we had not denied access and given the opportunity to rectify their statement but seem to have ignored this.

Whilst in court and under oath Katrina O'Connor whilst representing Housing New Zealand on at least two occasions claimed that we had denied access to contractors.

Here is an extract from a transcript of a recording between myself and Housing New Zealands Contractor.

Andrew:
That’s good. That’s good. Hey just had some issues come up, we’ve been going through some of the bits and pieces and doing some preparation, we’ve been told by Housing that they have cancelled the work order because we denied access.
Contractor:
No, what I said was I emailed them and told them that you weren’t happy with the way that it was going to be to just have the hole filled up so that’s why as far as I know they’ve cancelled it. I’m not too sure. That’s as far as I’ve gone with it so …
Andrew:
Right, OK. No, they’re claiming and stating and certainly got written in their notes on the system that we denied access to the builders to be able to fill it up.
Contractor:
No, I just said to them that you weren’t going to be happy with what was done so there wasn’t much point in us doing the job so … they’ve got the notes for that so …