Tenants in Dunedin have won a $5000 payout after their rental was in a state of disrepair. (File pic ). Photo / 123rf
Tenants in Dunedin have won a $5000 payout after their rental was in a state of disrepair. (File pic ). Photo / 123rf
A Dunedin couple's rental home fell into such disrepair that one of them fell through a hole in the bedroom floor and mushrooms grew beside the hot water cylinder.
That led tenants Evan and Raquel Zaragoza Faoagali to win a $5000 payout at a recent Tenancy Tribunal hearing.
They told the hearing the rental's lights continuously blew because of electrical issues, the garden was overgrown and they weren't allowed to trim it, and the home had rotten weatherboards on its exterior.
Other problems included extensive mould - possibly due to the roof not being watertight and a lack of insulation - along with rotten floorboards in the front bedroom and no smoke alarms.
The issues were listed out in a report by the Government's Tenancy Services team that was submitted to the Tenancy Tribunal as evidence.
Tribunal adjudicator J Wilson also found landlords Vishal Trivedi and Mary Mani - who live in Canada - had not inspected the property in the past three years nor undertaken any repairs.
Wilson said the law required landlords living overseas to appoint a local "agent" or property manager to ensure a rental was adequately maintained and tenants' concerns were addressed.
Wilson said the landlords had initially appointed a property manager when they moved overseas in 2012 but had then taken over management of the property themselves since 2016.
Wilson consequently awarded a $5020 exemplary payout to the Faoagalis because the landlords had "turned a blind eye" to their obligations to appoint a local agent and maintain the rental in a reasonable state of repairs.
Trivedi and Mani were also pinged for not supplying a statement about whether the rental was insulated or not and for not installing smoke alarms.
Tenants in Dunedin have won a $5000 payout after their rental was in a state of disrepair. (File pic ). Photo / 123rf
For their part, Trivedi and Mani had sought to evict the Faoagalis because they were behind in rent and because they had kept a dog in breach of the tenancy agreement.
Adjudicator Wilson agreed the tenants had not paid $2950 in rent owed to the landlords and subtracted this from the $5020 in exemplary damages awarded to the Faoagalis.
However, Wilson declined to terminate the tenancy at the request of the landlords because when the exemplary damages were taken into account, the rent was no longer in arrears.
He also declined to terminate the tenancy because the Faoagalis had a dog, saying the landlords had "turned a blind eye" to the fact they had a pet for the last three years and had not issued a notice to them giving them 14 days to remedy the issue.
The Faoagalis, meanwhile, told the tribunal that they decided they no longer wanted to live in the rental the moment one of them fell through the bedroom floor.
However, they had been unable to find a new rental so far and so didn't want to move out yet.
