What was Tenancy Tribunal case 4902354 about?

The tribunal order states: An application for suppression has been made in this case, and the Tribunal

How much money was awarded in case 4902354?

Property Damage: $750.00 awarded to landlord; Filing Fee: $20.44 awarded to landlord

What type of tenancy dispute was case 4902354?

The primary dispute was Exemplary damages.

Where can I read the official tribunal order for case 4902354?

The official Ministry of Justice published order is available at https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/TTV2/PDF/10560080-Tribunal_Order_Redacted.pdf.

What was Tenancy Tribunal case 4902354 about?

The tribunal order states: An application for suppression has been made in this case, and the Tribunal

How much money was awarded in case 4902354?

Property Damage: $750.00 awarded to landlord; Filing Fee: $20.44 awarded to landlord

What type of tenancy dispute was case 4902354?

The primary dispute was Exemplary damages.

Where can I read the official tribunal order for case 4902354?

The official Ministry of Justice published order is available at https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/TTV2/PDF/10560080-Tribunal_Order_Redacted.pdf.

New Zealand Tenancy Tribunal Case 4902354 — Exemplary damages

Claims and awards in Tenancy Tribunal application 4902354 — net $770.44 NZD. Amounts reconciled from the published order (claims sum and net total). Verify on MoJ.
Claim	Landlord	Reason
Exemplary damages for failure to quit the premises without reasonable excuse-s40(1)(e	$750.00	Exemplary damages for failure to quit the premises without reasonable excuse-s40(1)(e
Filing fee reimbursement	$20.44	Filing fee reimbursement
Net award	$770.44
Total payable by Tenant to Landlord	$770.44

Claims and awards in Tenancy Tribunal application 4902354 — net $770.44 NZD. Amounts reconciled from the published order (claims sum and net total). Verify on MoJ.
Claim	Landlord	Reason
Exemplary damages for failure to quit the premises without reasonable excuse-s40(1)(e	$750.00	Exemplary damages for failure to quit the premises without reasonable excuse-s40(1)(e
Filing fee reimbursement	$20.44	Filing fee reimbursement
Net award	$770.44
Total payable by Tenant to Landlord	$770.44

Order

An application for suppression has been made in this case, and the Tribunal orders suppression of the Tenant and the Landlords’ names and identifying details.
The tenancy of [the tenant] at [tenancy address suppressed] is terminated, and possession is granted to [the landlords], at 11:59pm on Saturday 31 August 2024.
[The tenant] must pay [the landlords] $770.44 immediately, calculated as shown in the table below:
The landlords must give the tenant no less than 48 hours’ notice of any contractors coming to assess works needing to be done and/or to provide the landlord with quotes for the extensive alterations, refurbishment, repairs, or redevelopment of the premises the landlord intends to commence within 90 days of the possession date. Such notice is to be provided by [landlords name supressed] to the following persons via text to the numbers below: a. [Tenant’s name and mobile number suppressed]; b. [Tenant’s daughter’s name and mobile number suppressed]; and c. [Tenant’s son’s name and mobile number suppressed].
The notice to be provided to the tenant and her adult children must contain the following information: a. The name of the contractor and/or the name of the contractor company that has a contractor coming to the premise; b. The date the contractor will be coming to the premise; c. The approximate time or window of time the contractor will be at the premise and approximately how long the contractor is likely to be there (if known). The tenant must recognise that some contractors will only give the landlord a date and not an exact time, and many contractors may give the landlord a window of time that spans half a day; and d. The type of assessment/quote the contractor/ contract company has been asked to undertake e.g. electrical work, plumbing, building etc.
The tenant must not unreasonably refuse the landlord’s contractors entry to the premise for the purposes of assessing works needing to be done and/or to providing the landlord with quotes for the extensive alterations, refurbishment, repairs, or redevelopment of the premises the landlord intends to commence within 90 days of the possession date. Unreasonable refusal to grant entry to the contractors will result in further exemplary damage claims being made by the landlord.
The tenant must allow the landlords [landlords names suppressed] entry to the premise at 3:30pm on Wednesday 10 July 2024 for the purposes of undertaking a routine property inspection. The tenant and her son have agreed to this date and time at the hearing and must not refuse the landlords entry.
The landlords will conduct the exit inspection on Sunday 1 September 2024. The tenant is not required to attend the exit inspection but may attend it if she so chooses. A copy of the exit inspection must be provided to the tenant and to her daughter. The landlords must inform the tenant, her son and her daughter by text message of the time the exit inspection will be conducted and confirm with Nicola the best email address for the exit inspection report to be sent to.
The landlord must not charge the tenant any more than $540.00 per week rent between the date of this Order and possession date.

Reasons

Both parties attended the hearing.
The landlords have applied to terminate the tenant’s fixed term tenancy and grant it possession on the grounds that it gave her no more than 90 days’ notice and no less than 21 days’ notice of its intention not to renew the fixed term tenancy for a further period as it intends to undertake extensive alterations, refurbishment and repairs of the premises and it would not be reasonably practicable for the tenant to remain in occupation while the work is undertaken and the work is to begin, or material steps towards it are to be taken, within 90 days after the date the tenancy ends and she failed to quit the premise without reasonable excuse.
The landlords have also applied for exemplary damages for the tenant’s failure to quit the premise without reasonable excuse and reimbursement of the filing fee.
During the hearing the landlords withdrew its claims for: a. Rent arrears of $80.00 (which had been based on a $40.00 per week rent increase that was due to take effect on 24 May 2024 and will no longer be implemented); and b. Exemplary damages for failure by the tenant, without reasonable excuse, to allow the landlords and/or its contractors to enter upon the premises in any circumstances in which the landlords are entitled to enter (because entry to the premise for the landlords and its contractors has been agreed between the parties during the hearing and have been set out in the Orders section above); and c. Compensation for the tenant having allegedly sublet the premise without the landlords’ consent and in breach of the terms of the tenancy agreement (because the landlords accept the tenant took on a boarder to help pay her expenses, that she charged him a reasonable board for his room, food, water consumption and other such expenses and she was entitled to do so lawfully. The boarder cannot be considered to be a sub- tenant and all or part of the premise was never sub-let).

Did the landlords end the fixed term tenancy lawfully?

The tenant’s latest renewal of her fixed term tenancy commenced on 7 April 2023 and was due to end on 6 April 2024 unless both parties agreed it would continue as a periodic tenancy or both parties agreed to enter into another renewal of a further fixed term tenancy period or one of the parties gave notice of their intention to end the tenancy at the end of the fixed term period.
The latest renewal of the fixed term tenancy agreement does not contain a provision that affords the tenant the automatic right of renewal of the tenancy for a further fixed term period.
The only way for the tenancy to come to an end at the end of the fixed term period (6 April 2024) was if: a. The tenant gave the 28 days' notice before the expiry date of the fixed term that she did not intend to renew the fixed term tenancy and did not want it to become periodic; or b. The landlords give the tenant no less than 21 days’ notice before the end of the fixed term that it doesn't want the tenancy to become periodic or to be renewed for a further fixed term, the date the tenancy will end, and the reason for ending the tenancy. The requisite notice period the landlord must provide to the tenant is to be based on the statutory requirements of that reason.
The landlords gave the tenant notice on 12 December 2023 that they did not intend to renew the fixed term tenancy for a further period and that the tenancy would end on 6 April 2024 (the end of the current fixed term tenancy). The reason given for this 116 days’ notice was because the landlords intend to undertake extensive alterations, refurbishment and repairs of the premise, it would not be reasonably practicable for the tenant to remain in occupation while the work is undertaken, and the work is to begin, or material steps towards it are to be taken, within 90 days after the date the tenancy ends. The required notice period for this purpose is to be no less than 90 days.
I am satisfied that the notice given to the tenant on 12 December 2023 terminating her tenancy was lawful and she was required to quit the premise on 6 April 2024.
On 23 April 2024, the landlords sent the tenant an email to her confirmed correct address and in this email the landlords agreed to extend the notice period to 17 May 2024 and made it clear to the tenant she must vacate the premise by this date or she would be remaining in the premise unlawfully. In this email, the landlord also give the tenant two options to extend the termination date further: a. The tenancy becomes periodic from 6 April 2024 and ends on 17 June 2024 on the condition: i. The tenant vacates the premise and gives possession back to the landlords on or by 17 June 2024; ii. The tenant grants entry to the landlords on or after 17 May 2024, with 48 hours notice having been given, to conduct a property inspection as they had not completed one since March 2023 (and are required by their insurer to undertake one every 6 months) and therefore their insurance on the property was invalidated until they had conducted one; iii. The tenant grants entry to the landlords contractors on the giving of 48 hours notice to allow them to assess the work that needs to be done to refurbish the premise and to provide the landlords with quotes for the work to be undertaken; and iv. The rent remains at $540.00 per week until the end of the tenancy. b. The tenancy becomes periodic from 6 April 2024 and ends on 15 August 2024 on the following conditions: i. The tenant vacates the premise and gives possession back to the landlords on or by 15 August 2024 ii. The tenant grants entry to the landlords on or after 17 May 2024, on the giving of 48 hours’ notice, to conduct a property inspection as they had not completed one since March 2023 (and are required by their insurer to undertake one every 6 months) and therefore their insurance on the property was invalidated until they had conducted one; iii. The tenant grants entry to the landlords’ contractors on the giving of 48 hours’ notice to allow them to assess the work that needs to be done to refurbish the premise and to provide the landlords with quotes for the work to be undertaken; iv. The tenant agrees to the landlords starting renovation work outside the carport and the storage room (external to the main dwelling/house) without complaint by the tenants and without any refusal by the tenant to allow the contractors entry to the property and to this part of the premise; and v. The rent to increase to $580.00 per week from 17 May 2024 until the end of the tenancy.
The tenant did not vacate the premise on 17 May 2024, did not allow entry to the landlords to undertake a property inspection, refused entry to the landlords’ contractors to provide quotes for the refurbishment/renovation work and tried unsuccessfully to negotiate variations to the two other options presented to her. As such, the tenancy was lawfully due to end on 17 May 2024 as no variation to that lawful notice was agreed to by both parties.

Did the tenant fail to quit the premise?

The landlords’ claim the tenant did not vacate the premises on 6 April 2024 or on then on the extended end date of 17 May 2024. The landlords had given the tenant lawful notices for both dates. The extension was given after the tenant had unlawfully refused to quit the premise on 6 April 2024.
The tenant claims the landlord could not lawfully terminate her fixed term tenancy before the end date, being 6 April 2024, and therefore the notice given to her on 12 December 2023 was unlawful. The tenant has misunderstood the law. As set out is paragraph [7(b)] above, a landlord is free to give a tenant the appropriate amount of notice of its intention not to renew a fixed term tenancy for a further period, not to agree to the tenancy becoming period and bringing the tenancy to an end for a specified reason with no less than the requisite notice required for that reason as set out in section 51 of the RTA.
A tenant must vacate the premises on the termination of the tenancy. See section 40(1)(e)(i) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
Breaching this obligation without reasonable excuse is an unlawful act for which exemplary damages may be awarded up to a maximum of $1,500.00. See section 40(3A)(a) and Schedule 1A Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
The tenant intentionally refused to quit the premise without reasonable excuse on two occasions. Firstly, when she did not vacate the premise by 11:59pm on 6 April 2024, in breach of the landlords 12 December 2023 notice and then again on 17 May 2024 in breach of the landlord’s 23 April 2024 notice. I find the tenant has committed an unlawful act twice.
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 find it would be just to require the tenant to pay a sum of $7500.00 in exemplary damages (half the $1,500.00 maximum penalty available) because: a. The tenant intentionally refused to vacate the premise on two separate occasions and has continued to refuse to quit the premise without reasonable excuse and has continued to refuse the landlord reasonable entry to the premise when they are legally entitled to enter the premise or have their contractors enter the premise with the requisite notice. This has cost the landlord time and money with ongoing delays to the refurbishment of the premise; b. The landlords are entitled to rely on the tenant quitting the premise on the landlords’ lawful termination of the tenancy. The landlords have been lenient as the tenant has been renting the premise for some time, she has been unwell and has an adult son with special needs that will require sedation to leave the premise; c. It is in the interests of landlords to receive exemplary damages for the tenant’s breach of her obligations to quit the premise when she has been given lawful notice terminating her tenancy; and d. it is in the public interest for tenants to be penalised as a disincentive to breaching their obligations quit the premise when they have been given lawful notice terminating their tenancy by their landlord. Reimbursement of filing fee
Because the landlords’ have wholly succeeded with their claims, I must reimburse the filing fee. Name suppression
The landlords have applied for non-publication of their names and identifying details.
The Tribunal must, on the application of a party that has wholly or substantially succeeded in proceedings, order that the party’s name or identifying particulars not be published, unless the Tribunal considers that publication is in the public interest or is justified because of the party’s conduct or any other circumstances of the case.
The landlords have substantially succeeded in this proceeding. I do not consider publication is in the public interest or justified because of the landlords’ conduct or any other circumstances of the case.
Non-publication of the landlords’ names and identifying details are ordered.
The tenant made an application during the hearing for her name and identifying details to be suppressed. The tenant is profoundly deaf and has had trouble with receiving emails in a timely fashion and this has caused some communication issues between the parties that has led to the issues between them escalating to the point that the landlords had no option but to apply to the Tribunal for the tenancy to end and possession of the premise to be granted to them. The tenant expressed concern that publication of her name and identifying details may led to her having more difficulty in finding alternative accommodation for herself, her son and her boarder. She also conveyed to me that she had been trying to seek alternative accommodation but I the current market has found it difficult to find somewhere to move to.
I am satisfied that the public interest in this matter does not outweigh the significant duress publishing the tenant’s name could result in when she applies for future tenancies. I therefore used my discretion to grant her suppression of her name and identifying details.

Tenancy Tribunal case 4902354 — Exemplary damages

At a glance

Tenancy Tribunal case 4902354 — Exemplary damages

At a glance

Award balance

Claims & awards

Order

Reasons

Did the landlords end the fixed term tenancy lawfully?

Did the tenant fail to quit the premise?

Topics & place

Residential Tenancies Act sections

Key findings

Frequently asked questions

Award balance

Claims & awards

Order

Reasons

Did the landlords end the fixed term tenancy lawfully?

Did the tenant fail to quit the premise?

Topics & place

Residential Tenancies Act sections

Key findings

Frequently asked questions