A Whanganui landlord has hit rock bottom with his 'preposterous' claims against his tenant

The landlord was seeking $3510 to break up the rock. Photo / File / 123RF

A Whanganui landlord's claim that his tenant smuggled a giant rock on to a rental property has been ridiculed as "preposterous".

Property owner Steve Robertson took his tenant to the Tenancy Tribunal seeking $3510 to pay for the cost of breaking up and removing the 10 tonne rock.

He claimed the rock - estimated to weigh between 8 and 10 tonnes and be embedded 2m underground - had not been on the property when he bought it last November and that the tenant instead put it there.

The tenant, who had been living at the premises since before Robertson bought the house, then produced photos showing the rock was on the property as far back as 2016.

Unfazed, Robertson remained adamant the giant rock had not been on the property in 2018.

He suggested the tenant may have hired a crane to remove the rock when he came to look at the for sale property and then put it back after he left.

No reason as to why the tenant might want to do this was provided, and the Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator slammed the suggestion as "preposterous" and threw out Robertson's claim for $3510.

Robertson had earlier attempted to back up his claim by producing a statement from a person called "Steve n".

The letterhead on the statement indicated Steve n worked as a builder and fence repairer.

Robertson claimed the statement was a record of how much he had paid Steve n to remove the rock along with other pieces of unwanted concrete and to complete a general gardening clean up on the property.

But the Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator said there was no evidence to show Robertson had actually paid Steve n for this work.

The adjudicator consequently dismissed all of Robertson's other claims.