People will be able to search the names of bad tenants and landlords from July on a Government website, with all Tenancy Tribunal decisions available online. The website, a joint initiative between the Department for Building and Housing and the Ministry of Justice, will allow anyone to search for a tenant's or landlord's name. Searchers will be able to view any tenancy disputes the person has been involved in that have been heard by the Tenancy Tribunal. A furore erupted this week over a Real Estate Institute national database that records good and bad tenants. Tenancy Services says its website will offer a similar, but fairer, service. The Institute quietly set up its database last year and thousands of tenants' names have already been entered by property managers who have been encouraged to include as much detail as possible. Opponents have called it one-sided, unfair and a threat to tenants' privacy as they have no control over what is published. The database can be used only by property managers. Tenants can get their information if they write to the institute's head office in Parnell. Jeff Montgomery, Tenancy Services' operations manager, said the new website would offer a similar service to the institute's database but it would be fairer. 'If a landlord or a tenant has a court order against them by the tribunal it will be able to be searched,' Mr Montgomery said. He said Tenancy Services had been aware of the institute's website for some time. He said that database listed people based on opinion, whereas the new website would list people based on court orders. The new site, which is part of $6.2 million the Government has pledged over the next four years to support better regulation and protection for tenants and landlords, would also ensure identities were correct, because the information came from court orders. More than 45,000 tenancy disputes were lodged with the Department of Building in the past financial year, most of them battles over rent or damage to property. Statistics released by the Department of Building and Housing said 45,362 tenancy disputes were lodged in the 2004/2005 year, with 67 per cent of those being solved through mediation. The remainder were sent to the Tenancy Tribunal to decide. Mr Montgomery said most disputes were over rent, with most of the applications lodged against tenants by landlords. However, 10 per cent of disputes heard were tenants seeking a decision against a landlord. 'The biggest one is rent followed by damage,' Mr Montgomery said. He said the number of disputes was not high, given that nearly one-third of New Zealanders rented.
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