Chitchat [NZ News] Indians can't rent home as landlords fear they will cook smelly cu

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-curries.html#

Newlywed Indian couple say they can't get a home to rent because landlords fear they will cook smelly curries

Indian couple in New Zealand moved cities from Auckland to Tauranga
Arun and Poonam Kaushish have struggled to find a home to rent
The wedded couple were told people were concerned they will cook curry
Landlords are reportedly worried the smell will cause houses to stink
They've been forced to live in a boarding house for the past seven months

An Indian couple who have spent months trying to find a home have been told landlords don't want them because of fears they will make a house stink from cooking curries.

Newlyweds Arun, 31, and Poonam, 29, Kaushish moved from Auckland to Tauranga in New Zealand in May, but more than 30 rental applications later they are still living in a boarding home.

Friends in the real estate industry had told them it was likely due to fears that the smell of curries was hard to get out of a house, the New Zealand Herald said.

'We have everything a person needs to get a rental ... I have good pay, good reference and good credit ... but we can't get a house at the moment; we are feeling very sad,' he said.

The retail store manager said between them, he and his wife earned about $1300 per week.

Although he'd been told the housing market was tight in Tauranga, he said he was told the same in Auckland and had no problem finding a home to rent.

His fears were backed up by a real estate agent from the city - who wished to remain anonymous - but told the NZ Herald: 'Owners of the properties have very strict guidelines on the condition of their house and that's the reason they are trying to avoid people of certain ethnicities'.

Often, people of Indian and Asian descent had been asked by landlords what sort of cooking they did.

However, he said homes were cleaned well so they didn't smell and as a last resort, losing rental bond money was an incentive to keep a home clean.

But another a real estate agency, Anton Jones, said the market was tight and that he'd also struggled to find somewhere to live and had to make up to five applications before finding a home.

The country's Human Rights Commission had infrequently received complaints about assumptions over cooking.

It was illegal in New Zealand to deny someone a tenancy based on ethnicity, the NZ Herald reported.


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