Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 5389587 — Exemplary damages
Decided 19 Jan 2026 · Published 19 Jan 2026 · Application 5389587
- Exemplary damages
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 tenant’s name and identifying details.
- Manukau City Property Management Limited must pay [The tenant/s] $278.00 immediately, calculated as shown in the table below.
Reasons
- Both parties attended the hearing on 16 January 2026. The tenant attended in person. The landlord requested an adjournment for different reasons which were declined and ultimately attended by telephone.
- The tenant has applied to the Tribunal for exemplary damages. The tenant says the landlord did not lodge the bond with the Bond Centre within the required time.
- The tenant said the landlord had appeared in a relevant Stuff article. The tenant did not have a copy of this article. I have not taken this into account because it has not been presented in evidence. Background
- The bond of $3,520.00 was paid by the tenant on 25 September 2025. The payment was not made by the tenant to the landlord, but to another company which also provides real estate management services (“X Co”). The reason given for this was that the tenant was initially interested in renting a different property. The bond money was paid by X Co to the landlord, who initially reversed the payment.
- The landlord says that during a weekly reconciliation she realised an error had been made. I understood that the error was reversing the payment. In an email to the Tribunal, she described what had happened: The tenant initially paid a bond in relation to a different property they were intending to move into. Subsequently, the tenant decided to proceed with the tenancy at [the tenancy address] instead. Due to this change, the bond payment was initially transferred to the owner of the other property in error. As soon as I became aware that the bond had not been lodged under the correct property, I lodged the bond for [the tenancy address] immediately, within approximately 10 minutes of becoming aware of the issue.
- On 10 November 2025 the tenant emailed a notice to remedy for failure to lodge the bond. The landlord says that, within 10 minutes of the email being received, the bond was lodged with the Bond Centre. The landlord provided a screenshot from her smartphone which shows a payment of $3,520.00 to Tenancy Services on 10 November 2025. The landlord said she lodged the bond from her own accounts and was then reimbursed by X Co.
- The information available to the Tribunal from the Bond Centre gives a “Tenancy start date” of 10 November 2025 and a “Bond lodgement date” of 17 November 2025. Relevant Law
- Section 19 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (the Act) provides that, where any person pays a bond to the landlord, or to any other person on behalf of the landlord, a written receipt must be given by the person who receives the payment (section 19(1)(a)).
- The landlord must send any bond payment to the Bond Centre within 23 working days after the payment is received (section 19(1)(b)).
- Breaching these obligations is an “unlawful act” for which the Tribunal may award exemplary damages up to a maximum of $1,500.00. Analysis
- The landlord accepted that she committed an unlawful act, but submitted that it was not intentional: The issue arose from an administrative error during a change of property, and it was rectified immediately once identified. There was no intention to avoid compliance, no benefit gained, and no prejudice caused to the tenant...
- As conceded by the landlord, I find that she has committed an unlawful act. The bond was received but was not lodged within 23 working days.
- Where a party has committed an unlawful act intentionally, the Tribunal may award exemplary damages where it is satisfied it would be just to do so, having regard to the party’s intent, the effect of the unlawful act, the interests of the other party, and the public interest.
- The tenant’s bond money was paid to an intermediary, X Co, who then forwarded the money to the landlord. I understood that the landlord has a business relationship with X Co and they provide assistance with letting arrangements.
- The Act does not explicitly state that the person who receives the bond must lodge it at the Bond Centre. It refers to the person who received “the payment” on behalf of the landlord giving a receipt (section 19(1)(a)). It specifies that the landlord must lodge the bond within 23 working days after “the payment is made” (section 19(1)(b)). I consider the intended effect of section 19 is that the landlord (which includes an agent of the landlord) will lodge the bond when it is paid. The section envisages payment of the bond and lodgement, without further transfers.
- The landlord says that an error was noticed during a reconciliation and the bond payment was reversed. The timing sequence of this, in relation to payment of the bond on 25 September 2025, and the tenant’s email of 10 November 2025, is unclear. It is not established that there was a delay between the realisation of an error and the lodging of the bond.
- I accept that the actual prejudice to the tenant was small, as the bond had been lodged before the tenancy ended on 20 December 2025. I also have insufficient information to say there were no legitimate business reasons for the arrangements between the intermediaries.
- I consider that the failure to lodge the bond was intentional. The landlord received bond money from a third-party intermediary which, in my view, was itself a breach of the Act, and while this was identified as an error and the payment was reversed, the obligation (as later recognised) was to lodge the bond. I consider that the Act does not permit the payment of bond monies through multiple intermediaries, whatever the reasons were for doing so. I find it would be just to award exemplary damages of $250.00. Filing Fee and Name Suppression
- The tenant is awarded the filing fee and granted name suppression as requested.