Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 5273084 — Rent arrears
Decided 9 Sept 2025 · Published 9 Sept 2025 · Application 5273084
- Rent arrears
- Property damage
Party names are redacted in the official published order.
Order
- Jamie-Lee Ganderton to pay [The landlord/s] $1,475.82 from the bond, calculated as shown in table below.
- The Bond Centre is to pay the bond of $1,475.82 ([Bond number suppressed]) to [The landlord/s] immediately. The Bond Centre is to pay the bond of $24.18 ([Bond number suppressed]) to Jamie-Lee Ganderton immediately.
Reasons
- The landlord attended the hearing.
- The tenant did not attend and not answer the calls made to her phone during the hearing. She had been notified of the hearing by email and text, accordingly pursuant to section 92 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (RTA) the hearing continued in her absence.
- The landlord has applied for rent arrears, compensation, refund of the bond, and reimbursement of the filing fee following the end of the tenancy. It is the landlord’s obligation as applicant to prove their claims to the evidential standard of the balance of probabilities.
How much is owed?
- The parties contracted to commence the tenancy on 2 April 2025. The tenant did not move in on that date however did collect the keys from the landlord several days later. She subsequently decided not to move in and gave her 21 days’ notice pursuant to section 51 (2A) RTA on 14 May 2025.
- Accordingly, the tenancy ended on 5 May 2025 by tenant notice. Although the tenant had not moved into the property, she had contracted to commence the tenancy and as such has incurred her legal obligations under the RTA.
- The tenant has not returned the keys to the landlord and as such the landlord claims the cost she was put to in having the keys replaced. I consider this claim reasonable in the circumstances, see section40(1)(e)(ii)-(v) RTA.
- Because [The applicant/s] has wholly succeeded with the claim I must reimburse the filing fee and approve her application for suppression orders.