Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 5289152 — Cleanliness at 12 Redcastle Drive, East Tamaki, Auckland 2013
Decided 28 Nov 2025 · Published 28 Nov 2025 · Application 5289152
- Cleanliness
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 Landlord name and identifying details.
- The Bond Centre is to pay the bond of $828.00 ([Bond number suppressed]) to [The landlord/s] immediately.
- The tenant’s claim for retaliatory notice is dismissed.
Reasons
- Both parties attended the hearing.
- The landlord applied for water rates, cleaning (including carpet cleaning) and exemplary damages.
- The tenant applied for bond refund and exemplary damages.
- The parties attended mediation where I am told agreement was reached except for the landlord’s claim for cleaning and the tenant’s claim for exemplary damages due to retaliatory notice.
- Following the mediation the bond was released with $828.00 remaining with the Bond Centre as the disputed amount. This is equivalent to the cleaning invoice submitted by the landlord.
- At issue is whether the premises were reasonably clean at the end of the tenancy on 2 June 2025. The landlord claims that the premises were unclean as there was a strong smell of tobacco.
- The exit inspection was held on 3 June 2025 and the property manager’s evidence is that he smelt something upon entering the premises. There were two real estate agents at the premises on the same day for a pre-listing inspection as the landlord had placed the premises on the market for sale.
- The landlord produced an email dated 6 August 2025 from those two agents who work for a different company to that of the property manager. The email states, “Upon entering the property, we both immediately noticed a strong smell of cigarette smoke inside the house, particularly in the master bedroom and living room. The smell was very noticeable and clearly present at the time of the inspection.”
- The landlord produced a short video of the cleaner in the premises and in that video, the cleaner is identifying the areas where he says the smell was obvious and less obvious. The landlord advised that the cleaner was there to provide a quote for any cleaning required.
- The tenant disputed that there was any cigarette smoke smell at the premises when the tenancy ended. She thought that any smell may have been due to cleaning products used.
- The parties produced email correspondence around the time that the tenancy ended. In one of the emails dated 4 June 2025 the tenant states, “...the only time anyone has smoked inside the house is when I have had a client in the family room and this has only happened two or three times that I can remember. There is definitely no way anyone has smoked in the lounge, hallway or master ensuite.”
- At the hearing the tenant said that one client had smoked in the room two or three times but that was around three and a half years ago.
- Clause 30 of the tenancy agreement signed by the tenant on 16 October 2018 states, Smoking and illegal substances: The tenant(s), Occupants and visitors must not smoke inside the dwelling....”
- The landlord arranged for cleaning to be carried out at the premises which included carpet cleaning. The invoice produced totals $828.00.
- The tenant said that she had already professionally cleaned the carpet and produced an invoice stating that carpets were cleaned and deodorized on 30 May 2025.
- The evidence produced by the landlord is that the premises smelt of cigarettes by the property manager, the two real estate agents and the cleaner on a date after 30 May 2025.
- The tenant said that there had been regular inspections with the last one on 23 April 2025 and the smell of the premises was not raised in any of these inspections. She disputed that a smell could appear between April and June 2025. I note that the last inspection was carried out by a different property manager.
- By acknowledging that a visitor has smoked in the premises the tenant has admitted breaching the tenancy agreement. The landlord has produced independent evidence that the premises smelt of cigarettes.
- I am satisfied that the landlord has proven, on the balance of probabilities, that additional cleaning was required due to cigarette smell in the premises.
- The tenant claimed that the notice to terminate the tenancy was retaliatory.
- The tenant was advised on 28 February 2025 that the owners wanted to sell the premises. There was a request for photographs to be taken for marketing the property.
- There had been a flood at the premises two weeks previously. The tenant asked for a delay of two weeks for the photographs due to the further cleaning that was required.
- On 4 March 2025 the tenant was served with a 90 day notice to terminate the tenancy. The tenant says that the landlord could have sold the premises subject to the tenancy which meant that they could remain living there.
- For a notice to terminate to be retaliatory 1 it needs to be proved that the landlord, in giving the notice, was motivated wholly or partly by the exercise or proposed exercise by the tenant of any right, power, authority, or remedy conferred on the tenant by the tenancy agreement of by the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 or any other Act or any complaint by the tenant against the landlord relating to the tenancy.
- The tenant’s request for a two-week delay for taking the photographs is not a right, power, authority or remedy conferred on the tenant. It is also not a complaint by the tenant against the landlord.
- There is no provision in the Act to compel the landlord to sell the premises subject to a tenancy. The Act also enables the landlord to give 90 days’ notice to end a periodic tenancy without reason 2 . 1 Section 54 Residential Tenancies Act 1986 2 Section 51(1) Residential Tenancies Act 1986
- On the evidence I am not satisfied that the notice to terminate was retaliatory. The tenant’s claim is dismissed.
- The landlord also sought an order for name suppression and is entitled to an order as the successful party 3 .