I am proud to be a landlord and provide housing for 13 families who either can't afford or don't want to own property. That means at some point in the pyramid there are 13 less homeless families; 13 less families for the government to house out of your taxes.

The point I made (page 3, The Weekend Sun, April 20) is neither landlords nor tenants can afford the government's list of improvements to rental property. They are not requiring home owners to do the same.

I also made the point that if there is something wrong with your rental home, first mention it to the landlord who should fix it. If that fails, you can issue a 14-day notice to rectify. Forms are available from Tenancy Services and if there is no action, take it to the Tribunal who will sort it out and protect you from retaliatory action. No need for warrant of fitness to add to the cost of providing accommodation over all properties.

As to Reed-Brown's letter ‘Tenants not numbers on a spreadsheet' (The Weekend Sun, May 4), there are also tenants names and phone numbers for contacting them to get permission to do repairs or upgrade. Not just numbers on a spreadsheet.

Most of my tenants stay in their flats and houses for years.

T Cranston, Tauranga.