Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 5373722 — Rent arrears
Decided 12 Nov 2025 · Published 12 Nov 2025 · Application 5373722
- Rent arrears
Party names are redacted in the official published order.
Order
- The Tribunal orders suppression of the Tenant’s name and identifying details.
- The tenancy of [The tenant/s] at [Tenancy address suppressed] is terminated, and possession is granted to Kāinga Ora–Homes And Communities, immediately.
- [The tenant/s] must pay $1,428 to Kāinga Ora–Homes And Communities.
- This order replaces all other orders for rent arrears relating to this tenancy.
EASONS
- The Tenant has been held on remand at Spring Hill Corrections Facility since 14 August 2025. He has not paid his weekly rent of $90 since then.
- Kāinga Ora has now applied to terminate the tenancy for unpaid rent and non- occupation of the premises. The Tenant agrees that the tenancy should be ended. He expects to be incarcerated until at least January 2026. I therefore terminate the tenancy by consent.
- Kāinga Ora also seeks rent arrears of $1,828. The Tenant had an historic debt to Kāinga Ora, which he had reduced to $748 when he was incarcerated. He has since been unable to pay any rent, so Kāinga Ora seeks an additional $1,080 – or 12 weeks’ rent.
- Kāinga Ora has produced a rent summary which proves the rent arrears. But I am not satisfied that Kāinga Ora is entitled to recover that whole amount.
- Kāinga Ora had an obligation to mitigate its loss arising from the Tenant’s failure to pay rent. 1 I am not satisfied that it has adequately done so. Kāinga Ora filed this claim on 24 October 2025. By then, rent had not been paid for about 10 weeks and it had known since late September that the Tenant was incarcerated and unlikely to be able to meet his ongoing rent obligations. Given what it knew by late September – that there were high rent arrears and little prospect of rent being paid in the foreseeable future – Kāinga Ora should have mitigated its loss by taking steps in late September to bring the tenancy to an end.
- Taking account of Kāinga Ora’s failure to adequately mitigate its losses and considering the overall merits and justice of the case, 2 I reduce the rent arrears by $400 to reflect that delay. I therefore order that the Tenant must pay $1,428 rent arrears to Kāinga Ora.
- I also order that the Tenant’s name and identifying details are suppressed. He has failed to pay rent, but only because he was incarcerated. Before then, he was making consistent rent payments and otherwise complying with his obligations as a Tenant. He may face challenges in obtaining accommodation upon his release, and it is not in the public interest to add to those challenges through publication of his name in association with this case, where incarceration was the sole cause of the breach. B Carter 12 November 2025 1 Residential Tenancies Act 1986, section 49 2 As I am required to do by section 85(2) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986.