Tiny house legislation must protect owners

A small brigade of tiny houses made the journey to Parliament's grounds yesterday with a key message to politicians. The protest - led by tiny house company Eco Cottages - has been travelling around Wellington streets all week. The aim is to introduce legislation to protect and promote tiny houses as an option to address the housing crisis. Founder Colin Wightman said legislation must protect owners with low-cost building standards. He said that would prevent excessive costs, red tape and abuses of the Building Act and Resource Management Act. One tiny house owner, Caroline Smith, has been battling the Manawatu District Council about the legitimacy of her tiny house. She told reporter Jonathan Mitchell if mobile homes are meant to be classed as a "building" then it will effectively make many more people homeless.