Tenantcheck Insights · Case study
Tenancy Tribunal case 5370770 — Rent arrears
Decided 11 Feb 2026 · Published 11 Feb 2026 · Application 5370770
- Rent arrears
Party names are redacted in the official published order. This page summarises the dispute only — not individual identities.
At a glance
Key facts from the published tribunal order.
Adjudicator
C Price
Claims & awards
What this tenancy cost at tribunal — claim, category, amount, and party awarded, with reconciled net total.
No individual claim amounts were reconciled for this order. View the official Ministry of Justice PDF for full detail.
Order
- The Tribunal orders suppression of the parties’ names and identifying details and the tenancy address.
- The application is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
Reasons
- [Tenant 1] and [Tenant 2], representing the applicants, and [Tenant 3], the respondent, and her support person [redacted], all attended the teleconference hearing.
- The applicants have applied for rent arrears. The issue of whether the Tribunal has jurisdiction to hear the claim has arisen. The hearing on 10 December 2025 discussed whether the Tribunal has such jurisdiction only.
- The applicant is required to establish the claim to the civil law standard of proof, on the balance of probabilities.
- The applicants are tenants and said the respondent is also a tenant in their tenancy. The applicants said the respondent left the tenancy, which is a fixed- term tenancy with several tenants and stopped paying her rent. The respondent said she left what she considered to be a periodic tenancy with notice to the landlord.
- The landlord is not involved in the application at all. Documents provided by the applicants indicate the landlord takes the position generally that the respondent remains a tenant until a replacement tenant has been found.
- The applicants maintain the Tribunal has jurisdiction as they believe they have a valid claim against the respondent. The applicants could not, however, refer to any provision of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 or otherwise, to support their claim that the Tribunal has jurisdiction in disputes between tenants. Discussion
- The Tribunal’s jurisdiction is limited to disputes between landlords and tenants that relate to any tenancy to which the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (“RTA”) applies. See section 77(1) RTA.
- Disputes between tenants or flatmates, where the landlord is not involved, fall outside the jurisdiction of the Tribunal. The Tribunal cannot determine disputes between tenants about internal arrangements, such as whether a co-tenant may leave or be replaced or pay rent to the remaining tenants after they leave, unless the dispute also involves the landlord and relates to the tenancy agreement.
- Here, the landlord is not involved, and the issue appears to be only between the tenants.
- As such, the claim is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Suppression
- I have granted name suppression to all parties, having regard to the interests of the parties, as the claim is dismissed because the Tribunal does not have jurisdiction. See section 95A(4) RTA.