Tenantcheck Insights · Case study
Tenancy Tribunal case 5501990 — Tenancy dispute
Decided 4 Jun 2026 · Published 4 Jun 2026 · Application 5501990
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
M Manhire
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
- An application for suppression has been made in this case, and the Tribunal orders suppression of tenant name and identifying details.
- The application is dismissed.
Reasons
- Both parties attended the hearing via remote video conference.
- The tenant has applied for reduction of the fixed-term tenancy due to end on 8 December 2026.
- The Tribunal may reduce a fixed term tenancy where: a. there has been an unforeseen change in the applicant’s circumstances; and b. there would be severe hardship to the applicant if the term is not reduced; and c. the applicant’s hardship would be greater than the hardship to the other party if the term is reduced. See section 66(1) Residential Tenancies Act 1986.
- The tenant seeks to be released from his fixed term tenancy due to a breakdown in the relationship with the other 3 tenants.
- The tenants signed an Extension of a Fixed Term Tenancy Agreement in October 2025. The agreement extended the fixed term for a further 12 months from 8 December 2025 to 8 December 2026.
- The tenant says that he moved out of the property and is now living at a different address. He is also now paying two rents as a result of the move.
- The tenant states that he has made considerable efforts to find a suitable replacement for his tenancy. This has been largely unsuccessful. He states that even when a potential replacement is found the remaining tenants essentially turn them away.
- The tenant provided a series of text messages between himself and the other tenants. If nothing else the evidence confirms a total breakdown in the tenancy relationship.
- The landlord is sympathetic to the tenant’s situation and certainly came across during the hearing as someone who has done his best to assist the tenant. The Tribunal also sympathises with the tenant and the position he finds himself in.
- The difficulty for the tenant in his application is the lack of evidence. There is no evidence provided of unforeseen changes in the tenant's circumstances which would amount to severe hardship if the term of the tenancy were not reduced.
- The requirement that there be an unforeseen change in circumstances limits the scope of the section. “Unforeseen” means unexpected, without warning. It is the opposite of foreseen and means something that is not liable to result, not a real risk.
- The tenant suggests he cannot afford to pay two sets of rent. No probative evidence was provided by the tenant that the requirement that he pay additional rent will be a severe hardship to him. Hardship must be severe, that is more than ordinary hardship, rigorous and not negligible and this has not been proven by the tenant. The tenant also therefore did not prove hardship.
- I cannot be satisfied, after full consideration of the evidence provided, that the tenant’s circumstances have changed in an unforeseen way.
- Given the above findings I do not have to consider whether the applicant’s hardship would be greater than the hardship to the other party if the term is reduced.
- In those circumstances, the application must be dismissed.
- Section 95A (4) of the Act allows the Tribunal, on the application of any party to the proceedings, or on its own initiative, having regard to the interest of the parties and the public interest, to order that all or part of the evidence, or the name or any identifying particulars of any witnesses or party, not be published.
- The tenant requested name suppression during the hearing. This request was also advanced and supported by the landlord during the hearing. I have granted this because it is in the public interest that a tenant is able to make an application to the Tribunal to get clarity of their obligations relating to the end of a fixed term tenancy.