Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 5096950 — Rent arrears at Unit/Flat 3, 123 Halswell Junction Road, Halswell,
Decided 27 Jan 2025 · Published 27 Jan 2025 · Application 5096950
- Rent arrears
- 14-day notice
Party names are redacted in the official published order.
Order
- An application for suppression has been made in this case, and the Tribunal orders suppression of the Tenant names.
- [The tenant/s] owes Kāinga Ora–Homes And Communities $2,006.00 (“the debt”), being rent arrears to 27 January 2025.
- [The tenant/s] must pay rent and the debt by weekly payments of $195.00, being $185.00 for rent and $10.00 for the debt. Payments will be every Thursday, with the first payment on 30/01/2025 and continuing until 30/11/2028.
- Payments will be allocated in the following order: rent and then rent arrears.
- If the tenant fails to pay rent and rent arrears within 2 working days of the due dates: a. The tenancy at Unit/Flat 3, 123 Halswell Junction Road, Halswell, Christchurch 8025 will terminate and the landlord will have immediate possession of the premises. b. The balance of the debt will be payable immediately.
Reasons
- Both parties attended the hearing, conducted via teleconference.
- The landlord has applied for termination of the tenancy, rent arrears and refund of the bond. The tenant wants to repay the debt to avoid immediate termination. The landlord is supportive of this.
Should a conditional termination order be made?
- Where rent is at least 21 days in arrears on the date the application was filed, the Tribunal must make either a final or a conditional termination order. See section 55(1)(a) and (1A) Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
- I am satisfied the tenant will pay the debt within the period specified in the order and is unlikely to commit any further relevant breach. I have granted a conditional termination order. The payments terms set are very much what has been informally in place since early last year.
- The conditional termination order will lapse if it is fully complied with. If the tenant breaches the order, the possession order may be enforced for 90 days from the first breach. See section 64(4)(b) Residential Tenancies Act 1986. Suppression
- Section 95A RTA states regarding suppression orders that 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party that has wholly or substantially succeeded in proceedings, order that the party’s name or identifying particulars not be published, unless the Tribunal considers that publication is in the public interest or is justified because of the party’s conduct or any other circumstances of the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.
- Further, the Tribunal may, on the application of any party to proceedings or on its own initiative, having regard to the interests of the parties and to the public interest, order that all or part of the evidence given or the name or any identifying particulars of any witness or party not be published.
- The landlord did not request suppression in its application and no landlord name suppression is ordered.
- At the hearing the landlord proposed tenant name suppression. The tenant was in agreement and requested suppression. The public interest in orders where termination by order is a possibility being available (as is the default) is such that some special reason should exist for any order of tenant name suppression. In this case, I have considered the point of the landlord that this was a matter, that for reasons uncertain, bypassed the usual precursor mediation step. Such a mediated order would not have been public. That in itself is not sufficient in my mind to justify suppression but I have also considered the tenants’ strong history of ongoing rent arrears repayments since March 2024. Those rent arrears accrued during an employment gap just prior to that date but the arrear has remained constant since, dropping slightly of late.
- Having considered the above factors, balanced against the legitimate public interest, I have determined it appropriate in this instance to exercise my initiative and suppress the tenant names in this order.
- Suppression of the tenant names is ordered.