Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 5473530 — Property damage at 163 West Harbour Drive, West Harbour, Auckland 0618
Decided 8 Jul 2026 · Published 8 Jul 2026 · Application 5473530
- Property damage
Order
- [The party] must pay [The party] and [The party] $1,091.62 immediately, calculated as shown in table below.
- The Bond Centre is to pay the bond of $4,800.00 (BN-17510810) to [The party] and [The party] immediately. DescriptionLandlord Floorboard replacement$2,932.50 Sanding and recoating floorboards @ 60% $2,931.12 Filing fee reimbursement$28.00 Total award$5,891.62 Bond$4,800.00 Balance tenant must pay the landlords$1,091.62
Reasons
- All the parties attended the hearing.
- The Tribunal must decide whether the tenant is liable for damage to the premises’ floorboards, and if so, in what amount. Background
- The tenancy began on 29 June 2024 and ended on 20 October 2025.
- The main living area of the premises which includes the kitchen, dining, and lounge has solid American Oak floorboards. During the tenancy, one of the tenant’s dogs urinated on the floorboards about six times. The urine penetrated the polyurethane and several floorboards. Fixing the damage required replacing sections of board and sanding and recoating the entire living area with polyurethane at a cost to the landlords of $7,817.70. Legal principles
- To succeed in a damage claim, the landlord must prove that the alleged damage to the premises occurred during the tenancy and is more than fair wear and tear. 1
- If the landlord establishes those (generally) to avoid liability, the tenant must prove they did not carelessly or intentionally cause or permit the damage. 2
- Where the damage is careless and is not covered by the landlord's insurance, the tenant's liability is generally limited to four weeks' rent. 3 However, as will be discussed below, that limitation does not apply where the damage was the result of the tenant keeping a pet on the premises. 4
- Damage is intentional where a person intends to cause damage and takes the necessary steps to achieve that purpose. Damage is also intentional where a person does something, or allows a situation to continue, knowing that damage is a certainty. 5 1 Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (RTA) s 49B(8)(a). 2 RTA s 49B(8)(b). 3 RTA s 49B(2) 4 RTA s 49B(1)(c). 5 See Guo v Korck [2019] NZHC 1541.
- If the landlord proves liability, when assessing the compensation it may award, the Tribunal must consider betterment and depreciation. The landlord should be returned to the position they would have been in had the tenant not breached their obligations and should not be made better or worse off. Discussion
- At the hearing, the tenant contended the damage was not due to carelessness on his part because his dogs were fully house trained, and he took measures to protect the floors. Unfortunately, one of his dogs suffered from bladder infections which led her to unexpectedly urinate inside.
- I would have found against the tenant on that argument. The standard is what the reasonably prudent tenant can be expected to have done. It is a standard that can be demanding when it comes to pets. I would not have been satisfied on the balance of probabilities the tenant had met the standard in the circumstances of this case, even if the carelessness was at the lower end of the scale.
- In any event, having read s 49B of the Act more closely after the hearing, I see that it is irrelevant whether the tenant was careless or not. At the end of 2025, Parliament amended s 49B(1) to exclude damage arising from “keeping a pet on the premises” from the operation of s 49B(3) which limits the tenant’s liability if they caused the damage carelessly. 6 That means the tenant is liable whether he was careless or not.
- Therefore, the tenant is liable to the landlords for the damage. Assessment of compensation
- The landlord’s contractor’s invoice is reasonable given the extent of repair work required.
- The tenant must reimburse the landlord for the work to replace the damaged floorboards in full.
- For the sanding and recoating of the whole area work, the tenant must reimburse the landlords for 60 percent of the cost. That allocation takes into account the floorboards’ 6 RTA s 49B(1)(c). age and condition at the time of the repair and when they would have had to be sanded and recoated anyway. Filing fee
- The tenant must reimburse the landlords for the filing fee. Bond
- The Tribunal directs the Bond Centre to pay the bond out to the landlords.