Edgecumbe House was investigated by MBIE's Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team. Photo / Alex Cairns
A landlord who removed several hot taps, disconnected a living room heater, removed the oven from the kitchen, and charged some tenants more than four weeks’ bond has been ordered to pay $37,000 in damages.
The landlord for Edgecumbe House, a boarding house in central Tauranga with 21 rooms, was taken to the Tenancy Tribunal for breaching its obligations under the Residential Tenancies Act.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment filed the claim against the house’s landlord, Edgecumbe House Limited, on behalf of 21 tenants. This number had been reduced to 17 by the time of the hearing.
Most tenants were referred by agencies such as the Department of Corrections and the Ministry of Social Development.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment began investigating the boarding house in 2022 after a complaint was made. A tenant told the investigation team that the property did not have an oven, the heater in the living room was disconnected, hot water taps had been removed from the washing machine and two basins, and tenants were being charged for heating in their rooms.
Inspections also found there were no working extractor fans in the downstairs kitchen and bathrooms and several tenants had paid a bond exceeding four weeks’ rent.
Chang Myung (Joseph) Oh, one of the two directors of Edgecumbe House Limited, told the investigation team that when the house’s previous heater broke down, the landlord had provided heaters for each bedroom as the tenants tended to stay in their rooms rather than use the common areas.
The bathrooms had large opening windows and there was never an issue with ventilation or moisture, Oh said. He told the investigation team he was not aware of healthy homes standards.
The boarding house’s kitchen had been converted from the garage and the stove had been removed as the power supply was insufficient and the fuse kept blowing. Instead, the kitchen had two benchtop hotplates with two elements each, a microwave, and an electric frying pan. Oh told the investigation team he thought the cooking facilities were adequate as most tenants would not use an oven.
A heat pump, a 28-litre oven and extractor fans had been installed and hot water taps were replaced after the investigation. But the heat pump was controlled so it could only be used between 6pm and 10pm and Oh had given custody of the remote to a tenant.
Oh said tenants referred by Corrections were charged a flat bond of $1000 due to the risk of damage. Accommodation benefit providers specified the amount of rent and bond they could pay until the tenants took over responsibility for their payments. The tenant might then be offered a lower weekly rate if the landlord believed house rules would be followed and the rent would be paid.
Taps had been removed because the landlords had previously experienced difficulties with tenants leaving them running and the cylinders would run out of hot water, Oh said. He acknowledged financial considerations played a role in the removal of the taps but said this was not the main reason. There were other hot taps the tenants could use.
Oh said none of the tenants had requested the excess bond be refunded.
Tribunal adjudicator John P. Smith said in the ruling the number of breaches and that tenants referred by Corrections were charged a flat bond were aggravating factors. Smith also accepted that the landlord’s actions were “misguided rather than exploitative”.
The failure to fix the kitchen fan and to install bathroom fans was found to be intentional as Smith said “ignorance of the law provides no excuse”.
The landlord was not entitled to restrict the hours of use of the heater and Smith said all tenants should have access to the remote.
Smith said the oven described as a “large portable oven” was similar in size to a microwave and it was questionable whether this was adequate for the number of residents at the boarding house.
He did not accept that the hot taps were removed to prevent the hot water running out. “I find the primary reason for their removal was most likely economic.”
The landlord was required to pay damages of $2500 for each of the 17 tenants, a total of $37,000.
Edgecumbe House Limited was issued with a three-year restraining order from committing further breaches of the same kind. This means the boarding house may still act as a landlord but if it breaches this restraining order, the consequences will be more severe.
Brett Wilson, national manager of the ministry’s tenancy compliance and investigations team, said in a statement that boarding houses often housed vulnerable people who were not in a position to address any tenancy issues themselves.
“Due to the extent and scale of the potential harm and the vulnerability of the tenants, [the investigations team] felt it was in the public interest to progress this case to the Tenancy Tribunal and we are pleased to have achieved a positive outcome for the affected tenants.”
Wilson said all the tenants spoken to as part of this case were concerned that raising issues would hurt their tenancies.