Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 4708029 — Rent arrears at 14 Paramount Parade, Tikipunga, Whangarei 0112
Decided 22 Mar 2024 · Published 22 Mar 2024 · Application 4708029
- Rent arrears
- Property damage
- Cleanliness
Order
- [The tenant/s] must pay I-Rentals Limited (as agent for John Puckey) $3,706.88 immediately, calculated as shown in table below.
- The Bond Centre is to pay the bond of $1,660.00 (3026685-011) to I-Rentals Limited immediately.
Reasons
- The tenancy ended on 17 October 2023.
- The landlord’s application seeks rent arrears, repairs, cleaning, change of locks, and methamphetamine related costs.
- The hearing took place on 22 March 2023 in Whangarei. Both parties attended the hearing. Ms Raymond represented the landlord.
- Ms Raymond provided a rent record and evidence of the condition of the premises at the end of the tenancy, including a video of the final inspection. Ms Raymond also provided evidence of the condition of the premises at the start of the tenancy.
- Tenants are liable for damage beyond fair wear and tear that occurs during the tenancy. At the end of the tenancy, tenants must leave the premises (inside and out) in a reasonably clean and tidy condition, and must remove all rubbish. Tenants must also return all keys.
- Ms Tau did not dispute the landlord’s claims for rent arrears, repairs, cleaning, change of locks, rubbish removal, and garden tidy up.
- The claim seeks $1,052.83 for methamphetamine testing costs and $500.00 for methamphetamine de-contamination cleaning (laundry only).
- Ms Raymond explained that: a. The premises were tested before the start of this tenancy in November 2018. The test results were positive, at a level that did not necessitate de- contamination cleaning. b. The same areas were sampled and tested at the end of Ms Tau’s tenancy. The results shows increased levels of contamination – from 2.6 micrograms to 4.43 micrograms on “Sample A” (a five sample composite), and from 1.79 micrograms to 7.17 micrograms on “Sample B” (a four sample composite.
- I-Rentals did not carry out detailed testing on the basis of these results.
- However, I-Rentals’ new tenant is a social housing provider. Ms Raymond understands that their tenant has its own standards in terms of methamphetamine contamination levels. The tenant carried out detailed testing, and charged I-Rentals for this cost. Based on the results of the detailed testing, they carried out de-contamination cleaning in the laundry.
- My finding is that Ms Tau is not liable for these costs.
- Since 2019 the Tenancy Tribunal has applied a de-contamination threshold of 15 micrograms, based on the recommendations in Professor Sir Peter Gluckman’s 2018 report. This approach was upheld by the District Court 1 . 1 Full Circle Real Estate Ltd v Piper [2019] NZDC 4947
- The post-tenancy composite test result did not indicate that any areas were possibly contaminated at levels above 15 micrograms. It is not proven that any areas were contaminated at levels above 15 micrograms.
- Therefore the claims for testing and de-contamination costs must be dismissed.
- The landlord has been successful in this application and I will also award the landlord the filing fee of $20.44.
- The bond will be released to the landlord.