Murray Hill has a portfolio of beat-up homes across Canterbury and the West Coast worth millions of dollars.

He's earned himself a reputation as a slumlord and the agency protecting tenants wants him shut down. How did landlord Murray Hill build a property portfolio worth millions? BLAIR ENSOR investigates.

Landlord Murray Hill says he is "doing society a favour by taking in all the derelicts".

Surrounded by piles of sodden carpet in the kitchen of an old weatherboard house, Hill slurps on a bottle of budget raspberry soda as he explains how he has amassed a multimillion-dollar property portfolio across Canterbury and the West Coast.

IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Christchurch landlord Murray Hill has spent the last fortnight cleaning up one of his properties in Olliviers Rd, Phillipstown, after partying youths trashed it.

The 61-year-old has not shaved in days and a smile reveals several missing teeth. A pair of green and orange overalls hide a holey old shirt. His hubless green Mitsubishi stationwagon is parked out on the street. The Tenants Protection Association (TPA) believes he is one of the worst landlords in Christchurch and should be "put out of business".

Hill is known for buying houses in some of the South Island's roughest neighbourhoods. Some of them look like they should be demolished, but he chooses to spend the bare minimum to make them liveable for tenants, who have included junkies, drug dealers, burglars and violent criminals. Hill does not like to paint the outside of his run-down rental homes. It does not pay so it is not worth the effort, he says.

Hill has rented at least one property that was deemed uninhabitable by health officials, Tenancy Tribunal documents show.

A property in Olliviers Rd, which is owned by Murray Hill. He says the property is under offer and could soon be sold. PHOTO: DEAN KOZANIC/FAIRFAX NZ

Since the earthquakes he has bought eight or nine properties in Christchurch at an average of about $105,000. They can each pull in upwards of $400 a week in rent, he says.

His current portfolio includes 14 properties in Canterbury and two on the West Coast, but he has owned many others since he bought his first home about 40 years ago.

He also has a stake in a pub in Reefton, the Inangahua Arms, and owns an upholstery firm in Addington called Murray's Furniture.

Some people describe Hill, who is not married and has no children, as a shrewd businessman who has identified a niche in the property market. He has also been called a slumlord.

"They can call me what they want; I don't give a f...," Hill says.

"I'm actually doing society a favour by taking in all the derelicts. Where else are they going to live?"

A property in Cross St, Phillipstown, which is owned by Murray Hill. It's understood the property is not currently tenanted. PHOTO: DEAN KOZANIC/FAIRFAX NZ

The conditions at some of his properties are "the pits" and he is consistently breaching the Residential Tenancies Act, TPA manager Helen Gatonyi says.

She has called on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which has received no complaints about Hill, to step in and investigate.

Hill has spent the past fortnight at one of his rental homes in Olliviers Rd, Phillipstown, ripping up sodden carpet, repairing smashed windows and taking loads of rotting rubbish to the dump.

Murray Hill's property on Ollivier's Rd, Phillipstown, was recently trashed by partying youths. PHOTO: DEAN KOZANIC/FAIRFAX NZ

A group of out-of-control youths trashed the property while they partied there for two days, drinking and taking drugs. Police were pelted with rocks, bottles and plates when they were called in to break up the festivities about 10.30pm on Monday, October 5.

When Hill arrived the next morning he found nearly every window in the house had been smashed, holes had been kicked through doors and taps had been left on, flooding the carpet.

It will have cost him about $3000 by the time he's fixed and cleaned the property and has new tenants living there.

"I'm pissed off," he says.

A woman and her six children, aged 2 to 16, had lived at the property for several months. Child, Youth and Family (CYF) took five of the children into custody a few days before the party.

Hill has not heard from the woman since the house was trashed. There's probably little financial benefit in taking legal action if he can track her down, he says.

"I don't give a f--k if she lived in a pigsty as long as she cleans up when she moves out, but she didn't."

Hill's properties in Christchurch are no stranger to trouble. They've attracted nearly 100 complaints to the Christchurch City Council in the past five years for an array of reasons – noise, rubbish on properties, dodgy storm water pipes, car maintenance and dog management.

Police are also regular visitors.

On Monday, investigators carried out a scene examination at one of Hill's properties in Shortland St, Wainoni, after a man, aged in his 20s, was stabbed multiple times.

In August last year, a man was hospitalised after he was stabbed by a woman at another of Hill's properties on Tuam St, Phillipstown.

Hill's $840,000 home in Lyttelton, Cressy House on Cressy Tce, has also attracted complaints and the attention of police. The property, which used to be a maternity hospital, has been transformed into a boarding house and is home to several tenants. Hill says he pockets more than $3000 a week in rent from the property when it is at capacity.

Sergeant Todd Webley says Hill co-operates with police. "He'll give us information where needed."

Murray Hill cleans up one of his properties in Olliviers Rd after it was trashed by partying youths. PHOTO: IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ

Hill says he find his tenants, many of whom are beneficiaries, through word of mouth and by advertising in the The Press newspaper. He tries to establish whether they've been in trouble with the law or with a previous landlord before taking them on, he says.

Most importantly, they've got to be able to pay rent.

Tenants, past and present, say they rented from Hill because they had no where else to go. They describe his homes as cold, damp, untidy and often in need of repair. Some have received reduced rent for carrying out renovations.

"He's a bit of a slumlord," a tenant, who won't give his name for fear of eviction, says.

Teresa Gittings paid $230 a week to live at one of Hill's properties on Olliviers Rd for 11 weeks in 2008 and describes him as "a shocking landlord".

The three bedroom home was a mess when she moved in, but Gittings, a beneficiary, had an infant child and was desperate to have a roof over her head.

She says it was cold, there was rubbish under the house and the grass was overgrown. Hill would promise to do maintenance, but rarely did.

Gittings says Tenants Protection knocked on her door after she moved in and told her that an environmental health officer had previously ruled the property was uninhabitable.

The Tenancy Tribunal later ruled that Hill should not have rented the property in "such poor condition" and awarded Gittings $550 compensation.

Gittings believes Hill should be shut down.

"If you can't take on the responsibility of looking out for your tenants then you shouldn't be a landlord," she says.

Hill says he is fit to be a landlord, but is considering using a property manager. He is also in the process of selling all the "old dungers" and upgrading, but maintains: "I'd live in any one of my properties".