What was Tenancy Tribunal case 5313459 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 5313459?

Rent Arrears: $13,860.00 awarded to landlord

What type of tenancy dispute was case 5313459?

The primary dispute was Rent arrears.

Where can I read the official tribunal order for case 5313459?

The official Ministry of Justice published order is available at https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/TTV2/PDF/12456388-Tribunal_Order_Redacted.pdf.

What was Tenancy Tribunal case 5313459 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 5313459?

Rent Arrears: $13,860.00 awarded to landlord

What type of tenancy dispute was case 5313459?

The primary dispute was Rent arrears.

Where can I read the official tribunal order for case 5313459?

The official Ministry of Justice published order is available at https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/TTV2/PDF/12456388-Tribunal_Order_Redacted.pdf.

New Zealand Tenancy Tribunal Case 5313459 — Rent arrears

Claims and awards in Tenancy Tribunal application 5313459 — net $13,180.00 NZD. Amounts reconciled from the published order (claims sum and net total). Verify on MoJ.
Claim	Landlord	Reason
Rent arrears	$13,860.00	Rent arrears
Net award	$13,180.00
Total payable by Tenant to Landlord	$13,180.00

Order

An application for suppression has been made in this case, and the Tribunal orders suppression of the Tenant’s and Landlord’s name and identifying details.
[The landlord/s] is granted possession of the premises at [Tenancy address suppressed] immediately.
[The tenant/s] must pay [The landlord/s] $10,660.00 immediately, for rent arrears.

Reasons

Both parties attended both hearings.
As a preliminary matter at both hearings [The tenant/s] had referred to needing legal assistance. However, while she had spoken to community law between the hearings, no steps had been taken to obtain any assistance. Under S93(3) Residential Tenancies Act 1986, the Tribunal has the discretion to allow legal representation if it considers it is appropriate to do so, taking into account the nature and complexity of the issues, or any significant disparity between the parties.
While I acknowledge the significance of these issues to [The tenant/s], I note that: a. the issues are legally and factually straightforward; b. the allegations of healthy homes issues and the condition of the property were discussed with [The tenant/s] at the first hearing and she was advised of the need to make a counterclaim, however, no counterclaim was made; and c. While [The tenant/s] referred to having suffered a TBI in 2021 and to suffering from ADHD, she presented as understanding the issues, and there were no significant disparities between the parties’ ability to argue their cases; and d. the significant issue in this case is termination for arrears totalling nearly 3 years’ worth of rent, and any delay to allow for representation to be arranged will allow further arrears to accrue, which is in neither parties’ interests.
Given this I declined the request for legal representation. To account for [The tenant/s]’s self-represented status I took extra steps to frame the legal issues and to probe both her position and [The landlord/s]’s to ensure that no prejudice arose.
It is noted that I have not considered any issues relating to the alleged failure to maintain, or alleged healthy homes breaches, or any issues to do with the failure to appoint an agent. Should [The tenant/s] wish to pursue these they will need to be the subject of a separate application. Background
The tenancy began 2013, when [The landlord/s]’s late mother leased the property to [The tenant/s].
In 2016, due to issues with his mother’s health [The landlord/s] took partial control of her affairs under an enduring power of attorney.
In 2017, [The landlord/s]’s mother moved to Australia and went into aged care. Leaders was appointed rental agent.
On 12 November 2021 [The landlord/s] emailed [The tenant/s] advising her that Leaders was no longer rental agent. He provided an updated bank account number, which [The landlord/s] says was the account used until 2017.
All 19 November 2021, there was an exchange of emails relating to the provision of details to WINZ, for accommodation supplement purposes.
Various text and emails were exchanged between [The landlord/s] and [The tenant/s] relating to plumbing and repair issues.
On 20 May 2023, [The landlord/s]’s mother passed away. He advises that there were delays and complexity relating to probate being granted in Australia, and the need for probate to be resealed in New Zealand.
Regular rent payments up until 28 July 2022. After this date rent ceased entirely, apart from single payments which were made on 4 August, and 28 September 2022, and 14 May, 14 September, and 21 September 2023. No rent has been paid since 21 September 2023.
On 12 February 2023, [The landlord/s] emailed [The tenant/s] advising that rent had not been paid since 28 July 2022, and that arrears at that point were $11,340. It appears that there was no correspondence following this.
On 2 August 2024, [The landlord/s] hand-delivered a notice, which was placed into the letterbox at the tenancy address, advising that the tenancy would terminate in 90 days as the premises were to be marketed for sale. [The tenant/s] says she did not receive this notice.
On 28 January, and on 30 April 2025, further 90-day notices were emailed to [The tenant/s]. [The tenant/s] says she did not receive these notices. In May 2025, a friend of [The landlord/s] visited the tenancy to see if it was still occupied.
[The landlord/s] has applied for termination of the tenancy, rent arrears and refund of the bond. Termination
Rent was at least 21 days in arrears on the date the application was filed. The tenancy is terminated. See section 55(1)(a) Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
[The tenant/s] said that the arrears had occurred due to [The landlord/s] not providing details to WINZ. However, the correspondence shows that the WINZ issue was resolved in November 2021, some eight months before the rental payments stopped.
[The tenant/s] questioned whether [The landlord/s], was in fact the landlord, and had the legal standing to bring this application. She pointed out that there was no signed lease with [The landlord/s] as there had been with his mother, and with leaders. However, the documents show that in 2021 and 2022 [The tenant/s] accepted that [The landlord/s] was the landlord. As the holder of an enduring power of attorney he was able to conduct his mother’s affairs up until her death. Following her death [The landlord/s] has conducted the affairs of the deceased estate. I find that [The landlord/s] does have standing to bring this application.
Furthermore, I accept that the 90-day notices meet the requirements to terminate the tenancy. Section 136(1)(c) Residential tenancy Act 1986 allows for service of notices to be affected by leaving the notice in the letterbox at the tenancy address. [The landlord/s] has provided copies of date and time stamp photos showing the notice being hand-delivered into the letterbox. Additionally, section 136(1)(d) allows service to an email address given by the tenant as an address for service. I note that the email address used for both these notices was the address which [The tenant/s] used previously when corresponding with [The landlord/s].
The tenancy is terminated and [The landlord/s] may take immediate possession. Rent arrears
[The landlord/s] has provided rent records which prove the amount owing at the end of the tenancy. These total $63,980 as at 25 July 2025, meaning that another 8 weeks arrears have now accrued.
S49 Residential Tenancies Act 1986, requires that parties take steps to mitigate their losses, they cannot rest on their rights. 1 When faced with a situation such as this one, the landlord has the ability to seek termination in the Tribunal or to issue notices terminating the lease. Considering cases which have looked at similar situations, I note a variety of approaches from a discount being applied to allow for a landlord’s delay in making an application 2 , to applying a timeframe in which it was reasonable for streps to be taken 3 . The approach will be what is reasonable based on the facts.
I note that: a. [The landlord/s] accepted that he had not closely monitored whether the payments were being made; b. [The landlord/s] referred to the issues he faced dealing with his mother’s declining health and then obtaining probate; c. the full amount of arrears accrued totals in excess of $66,000 to date; and d. a notice seeking arrears was served on 28 Jul 2022, but no further steps were taken.
I conclude that after the notice of arrears was issued [The landlord/s] should have taken steps, namely an application to the Tribunal. While at that point some 7 months of arrears had accrued, the circumstances of [The landlord/s]’s mother’s health, and imminent death factor into any delay to this point. Had an application been made at that stage a Tribunal hearing and resolution could 1 Davies v Clarke [2017] NZDC 21608 2 Huang v Ashworth [2024] NZDC 15726 3 Dunn v Maxwell, unreported, Whangarei DC (CIV-2014-088-000349, 27 November 2014, Judge de Ridder) have been reached within a further 6 weeks, allowing for the average timeframes to hearing in 2022. 4
I conclude that the full arrears, which sit at some $66,000 to date, could have been reasonably avoided had action been taken following the notice of arrears in 2022. At that date $11,340 had accrued. The six weeks for a hearing to occur would have led to another $2,520 accruing. Taking these factors into account I award $13,860 in arrears. In doing so I note the fact that this represents less than a quarter of the total arrears.

Claims and awards in Tenancy Tribunal application 5313459 — net $13,180.00 NZD. Amounts reconciled from the published order (claims sum and net total). Verify on MoJ.
Claim	Landlord	Reason
Rent arrears	$13,860.00	Rent arrears
Net award	$13,180.00
Total payable by Tenant to Landlord	$13,180.00

Order

An application for suppression has been made in this case, and the Tribunal orders suppression of the Tenant’s and Landlord’s name and identifying details.
[The landlord/s] is granted possession of the premises at [Tenancy address suppressed] immediately.
[The tenant/s] must pay [The landlord/s] $10,660.00 immediately, for rent arrears.

Reasons

Both parties attended both hearings.
As a preliminary matter at both hearings [The tenant/s] had referred to needing legal assistance. However, while she had spoken to community law between the hearings, no steps had been taken to obtain any assistance. Under S93(3) Residential Tenancies Act 1986, the Tribunal has the discretion to allow legal representation if it considers it is appropriate to do so, taking into account the nature and complexity of the issues, or any significant disparity between the parties.
While I acknowledge the significance of these issues to [The tenant/s], I note that: a. the issues are legally and factually straightforward; b. the allegations of healthy homes issues and the condition of the property were discussed with [The tenant/s] at the first hearing and she was advised of the need to make a counterclaim, however, no counterclaim was made; and c. While [The tenant/s] referred to having suffered a TBI in 2021 and to suffering from ADHD, she presented as understanding the issues, and there were no significant disparities between the parties’ ability to argue their cases; and d. the significant issue in this case is termination for arrears totalling nearly 3 years’ worth of rent, and any delay to allow for representation to be arranged will allow further arrears to accrue, which is in neither parties’ interests.
Given this I declined the request for legal representation. To account for [The tenant/s]’s self-represented status I took extra steps to frame the legal issues and to probe both her position and [The landlord/s]’s to ensure that no prejudice arose.
It is noted that I have not considered any issues relating to the alleged failure to maintain, or alleged healthy homes breaches, or any issues to do with the failure to appoint an agent. Should [The tenant/s] wish to pursue these they will need to be the subject of a separate application. Background
The tenancy began 2013, when [The landlord/s]’s late mother leased the property to [The tenant/s].
In 2016, due to issues with his mother’s health [The landlord/s] took partial control of her affairs under an enduring power of attorney.
In 2017, [The landlord/s]’s mother moved to Australia and went into aged care. Leaders was appointed rental agent.
On 12 November 2021 [The landlord/s] emailed [The tenant/s] advising her that Leaders was no longer rental agent. He provided an updated bank account number, which [The landlord/s] says was the account used until 2017.
All 19 November 2021, there was an exchange of emails relating to the provision of details to WINZ, for accommodation supplement purposes.
Various text and emails were exchanged between [The landlord/s] and [The tenant/s] relating to plumbing and repair issues.
On 20 May 2023, [The landlord/s]’s mother passed away. He advises that there were delays and complexity relating to probate being granted in Australia, and the need for probate to be resealed in New Zealand.
Regular rent payments up until 28 July 2022. After this date rent ceased entirely, apart from single payments which were made on 4 August, and 28 September 2022, and 14 May, 14 September, and 21 September 2023. No rent has been paid since 21 September 2023.
On 12 February 2023, [The landlord/s] emailed [The tenant/s] advising that rent had not been paid since 28 July 2022, and that arrears at that point were $11,340. It appears that there was no correspondence following this.
On 2 August 2024, [The landlord/s] hand-delivered a notice, which was placed into the letterbox at the tenancy address, advising that the tenancy would terminate in 90 days as the premises were to be marketed for sale. [The tenant/s] says she did not receive this notice.
On 28 January, and on 30 April 2025, further 90-day notices were emailed to [The tenant/s]. [The tenant/s] says she did not receive these notices. In May 2025, a friend of [The landlord/s] visited the tenancy to see if it was still occupied.
[The landlord/s] has applied for termination of the tenancy, rent arrears and refund of the bond. Termination
Rent was at least 21 days in arrears on the date the application was filed. The tenancy is terminated. See section 55(1)(a) Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
[The tenant/s] said that the arrears had occurred due to [The landlord/s] not providing details to WINZ. However, the correspondence shows that the WINZ issue was resolved in November 2021, some eight months before the rental payments stopped.
[The tenant/s] questioned whether [The landlord/s], was in fact the landlord, and had the legal standing to bring this application. She pointed out that there was no signed lease with [The landlord/s] as there had been with his mother, and with leaders. However, the documents show that in 2021 and 2022 [The tenant/s] accepted that [The landlord/s] was the landlord. As the holder of an enduring power of attorney he was able to conduct his mother’s affairs up until her death. Following her death [The landlord/s] has conducted the affairs of the deceased estate. I find that [The landlord/s] does have standing to bring this application.
Furthermore, I accept that the 90-day notices meet the requirements to terminate the tenancy. Section 136(1)(c) Residential tenancy Act 1986 allows for service of notices to be affected by leaving the notice in the letterbox at the tenancy address. [The landlord/s] has provided copies of date and time stamp photos showing the notice being hand-delivered into the letterbox. Additionally, section 136(1)(d) allows service to an email address given by the tenant as an address for service. I note that the email address used for both these notices was the address which [The tenant/s] used previously when corresponding with [The landlord/s].
The tenancy is terminated and [The landlord/s] may take immediate possession. Rent arrears
[The landlord/s] has provided rent records which prove the amount owing at the end of the tenancy. These total $63,980 as at 25 July 2025, meaning that another 8 weeks arrears have now accrued.
S49 Residential Tenancies Act 1986, requires that parties take steps to mitigate their losses, they cannot rest on their rights. 1 When faced with a situation such as this one, the landlord has the ability to seek termination in the Tribunal or to issue notices terminating the lease. Considering cases which have looked at similar situations, I note a variety of approaches from a discount being applied to allow for a landlord’s delay in making an application 2 , to applying a timeframe in which it was reasonable for streps to be taken 3 . The approach will be what is reasonable based on the facts.
I note that: a. [The landlord/s] accepted that he had not closely monitored whether the payments were being made; b. [The landlord/s] referred to the issues he faced dealing with his mother’s declining health and then obtaining probate; c. the full amount of arrears accrued totals in excess of $66,000 to date; and d. a notice seeking arrears was served on 28 Jul 2022, but no further steps were taken.
I conclude that after the notice of arrears was issued [The landlord/s] should have taken steps, namely an application to the Tribunal. While at that point some 7 months of arrears had accrued, the circumstances of [The landlord/s]’s mother’s health, and imminent death factor into any delay to this point. Had an application been made at that stage a Tribunal hearing and resolution could 1 Davies v Clarke [2017] NZDC 21608 2 Huang v Ashworth [2024] NZDC 15726 3 Dunn v Maxwell, unreported, Whangarei DC (CIV-2014-088-000349, 27 November 2014, Judge de Ridder) have been reached within a further 6 weeks, allowing for the average timeframes to hearing in 2022. 4
I conclude that the full arrears, which sit at some $66,000 to date, could have been reasonably avoided had action been taken following the notice of arrears in 2022. At that date $11,340 had accrued. The six weeks for a hearing to occur would have led to another $2,520 accruing. Taking these factors into account I award $13,860 in arrears. In doing so I note the fact that this represents less than a quarter of the total arrears.

Tenancy Tribunal case 5313459 — Rent arrears

At a glance

Tenancy Tribunal case 5313459 — Rent arrears

At a glance

Award balance

Claims & awards

Order

Reasons

Topics & place

Residential Tenancies Act sections

Key findings

Frequently asked questions

Award balance

Claims & awards

Order

Reasons

Topics & place

Residential Tenancies Act sections

Key findings

Frequently asked questions