Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 5443401 — Tenancy dispute at Unit/Flat 13A, 16 Gore Street, Auckland Central, Auckland
Decided 7 May 2026 · Published 7 May 2026 · Application 5443401
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.
- The Bond Centre is to pay the bond of $1,840.00 ([Bond number suppressed]) to [The tenant/s] immediately.
- Barfoot & Thompson Property Limited City, Liang Zhou Family Trust Yi Zhao must pay [the tenant] the sum of $28.00 immediately.
Reasons
- Both parties attended the hearing.
- There is a dispute about the bond because of unpaid water rates at the end of the tenancy.
- The tenant applied to the Tribunal. She had taken advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau and contacted the Bond Centre put the Bond in dispute and then made an application to the Tribunal disputing the water rates.
- Although the application to the Tribunal does not specifically ask for a refund of the bond, there is no other order that the Tribunal could make in the applicant’s favour. I am satisfied that the other party knew or ought to have known that the tenant wanted her bond refunded.
- The water rates were not billed to the tenant during the last 18 months of the tenancy when the ownership changed hands.
- The tenant accepts that she may owe some water rates but has not seen the invoices from WaterCare that show her consumption, and she does not want it all to come off her bond at this stage.
- The landlord has not made an application under section 22B(2) of the Act and so no order can be made to release the bond to the landlord.
- This does not prevent the landlord from filing an application in the Tribunal for water rates. The landlord will need to prove the actual water and waste water consumption for each period. The tenant is not liable for any of the fixed charges.
- Because [The applicant/s] has wholly succeeded with the claim I must reimburse the filing fee.
- It may be that if the landlord can provide the necessary information about actual water use to the tenant, agreement can be reached about payment of water rates without the need to return to the Tribunal.