Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 4627308 — Exemplary damages at 22B Gibson Road, Tuakau, Tuakau 2121
Decided 7 Nov 2023 · Published 7 Nov 2023 · Application 4627308
- Exemplary damages
Party names are redacted in the official published order.
Order
- Kendall Marie Simmons must pay [The tenant/s] $4,183.44 immediately, calculated as shown in table below:
Reasons
- This is a cross application. Only the tenant attended today’s hearing.
- As the landlord did not attend, nor request an adjournment, then the landlord’s claims are dismissed.
- The tenant claims: a) That the landlord failed to lodge her bond of $1200 with the Bond Centre. b) That the landlord overcharged her rent and has failed to reimburse the tenant for the rent that has been overcharged. c) That the landlord has failed to provide her with water invoices.
- [The tenant/s] claims the landlord has not lodged the bond with the Bond Centre within the required time.
- A landlord must send any bond payment to the Bond Centre within 23 working days after the payment is received. See section 19(1) Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
- Breaching this obligation is an unlawful act for which the Tribunal may award exemplary damages up to a maximum of $1,500.00. See section 19(2) and Schedule 1A Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
- The tenancy began on the 9 July 2022, the tenant paid the bond at the beginning of the tenancy. This is recorded in documents provided by the tenant at the hearing which showed she was advanced this money by MSD. The bond has not been lodged with the bond centre. I find the landlord has committed an unlawful act.
- Where a party has committed an unlawful act intentionally, the Tribunal may award exemplary damages where it is satisfied it would be just to do so, having regard to the party’s intent, the effect of the unlawful act, the interests of the other party, and the public interest. See section 109(3) Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
- I consider the landlord acted intentionally because the landlord took no steps to lodge the bond. The tenant borrowed the bond from MSD. She needed that money when she moved out to assist her in finding alternative accommodation and by the landlord withholding it she has been deprived of this amount.
- The tenant said that she had agreed to pay the landlord some money for damage of a hole in the wall but only because she had no choice because the landlord had her bond. She said that she didn’t believe that she should be responsible for the hole in the wall and she had not seen any invoices or quotes to repair.
- When landlords do not lodge bond money in the Bond Centre, then it is in the public interest, especially when that money is being taken from the public purse as it is was here, that a landlord is made to pay exemplary damages as a deterrent to other landlord’s retaining bonds.
- I therefore award the tenant $500.00 in exemplary damages for this breach.
- The landlord is to immediately repay the tenant the full bond as well.
- I am also satisfied that the tenant has overpaid her rent. The tenant paid 38 weekly payments of $615 per week for her rent from 26 July 2022 to 11 April 2023 (inclusive) and 10 weekly payments of $815.00 for rent and water from 18 April to 20 June 2023 inclusive. $15.00 per week was taken for water, but the tenant has never been supplied with a water invoice. Landlord’s must supply water invoices to tenant and account to them. As the landlord has not done that then the tenant is entitled to a full refund of all water paid= $720.00.
- The landlord also purported to increase the rent from $600.00 per week to $800.00 per week from the 21 April 2023. Landlords cannot increase the rent within 12 months from the commencement date of a tenancy (see s24 RTA). As this date was only 38 weeks from the commencement date then it was invalid and unenforceable. The tenant is entitled to be refunded all over payment of rent paid by her, which I calculate to be $1,743.00 This amount should be paid immediately.
- The tenant tells me that she had to scrape by to pay the increased rent and this left her with not enough money for food and other essentials, she said in order to pay the rent which she thought she had to pay, she went without food.
- Because [The tenant/s] has wholly succeeded with the claim I must reimburse the filing fee and I grant her name suppression as requested.
- I also record that at today’s hearing [The tenant/s] handed in a set of keys to the property to the court. Those keys are being held at [Court] and can be retrieved by the landlord at the [Town] District Court Counter.