The house had a multitude of issues, including mould, leaks and loss of amenities such as running water. Photo / 123rf
A tenant living in a house that had multiple issues, including a rotting wall with a hole through to the outside, refused to pay full rent.
There were also some windows screwed shut, leaks, mould, rotten joinery and at times Tammy Brassey was without water, an oven and a dishwasher at the rental property.
Brassey became concerned that the house was not compliant with healthy homes standards and asked her landlord, Sujendra Sharma, for that information.
But after not receiving it, she ordered her own assessment.
The report highlighted several issues and found it did not meet the Healthy Homes Standard.
Brassey then turned to the Tenancy Tribunal, applying for work orders and compensation for the breaches.
Singh cross-applied for rent arrears, Brassey to be evicted, and compensation for stress and financial pressure.
In the tribunal’s recently-released decision, which finds in favour of Brassey, it stated she has been living in the property at Dairy Flat, Auckland since 2018.
In her claim to the tribunal, she provided photos of a rotten internal wall near the entrance to a downstairs bedroom.
She said the damage was caused by water flooding down the stairs, which rotted the wall so badly that there was a hole through to the outside.
Sharma said Brassey had told him about it in August 2025 but Brassey showed the tribunal a text that proved she raised the issue in April 2023.
There were many examples in the decision of Brassey having raised issues with the property and Sharma failing to address them.
Sharma told the tribunal that Brassey had not been paying rent in full or on time, leaving him struggling financially and unable to keep on top of the home’s maintenance.
He claimed she owed him $1710 in rent arrears.
Brassey accepted she had not been paying rent and said it was because she believed Sharma had breached his obligations under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) and Housing Improvement Regulations.
She agreed to recommence paying $620 in weekly rent if Sharma fixed the issues at the property.
Another issue raised before the tribunal was Sharma’s failure to keep records of rent payments, the tenancy agreement and bond details.
According to the decision, when Brassey asked Sharma for such records, he told her he was not willing to look that far back as he did not have time.
“I’m sick and tired of all this, to be really honest with you. I never had this problem with anyone before. You are having major problems paying full rent and it’s time you did something about it and did it urgently too. Thank you,” he messaged her.
“You haven’t paid full rent for seven months now and any other landlord would have kicked you out by now and believe me I’m on the verge of doing that. I felt sorry for you for too long now.”
The tribunal dismissed Sharma’s rent arrears claim due to his lack of records.
Brassey also showed the tribunal photos of two bedroom windows that were screwed shut from the outside.
One was already done when she moved in, and she screwed the other shut in December 2023 after it kept opening and banging due to holes in the joinery.
She had issued a 14-day notice about the windows that month, which required Singh to remedy the breach within that time, as well as for the rotten framing around several doors and windows.
Sharma, who did not make the repairs, had nothing to say in his defence about the breaches, the decision said.
Brassey also claimed the water pump was broken, leaving her without running water, and the tank had been leaking.
Her family paid for a new water pump, and Brassey paid for a tank of water after it was depleted by the leak.
Sharma said he did not have time to get the pump fixed and he would reimburse her, which he did not.
During her time at the property, Brassey also experienced leaks and a broken downpipe, a broken oven and dishwasher for lengthy periods, a lack of compliant smoke alarms, a lack of insulation, a lack of heating and ventilation, insufficient draught-stopping, excess moisture and lack of drainage.
Tribunal adjudicator Michelle Pollack said Sharma had committed intentional breaches of the Residential Tenancies Act.
“That resulted in the tenant living in conditions that were unhealthy and that she experienced considerable periods of stress, inconvenience, and loss of the amenity the tenant was paying rent to enjoy. The landlord did not offer any rent relief to the tenant at these times.”
Sharma was ordered to pay $25,822.50 in compensation to Brassey and to fix 14 issues at the property, including the rotten wall, the mould issue, and to install a new oven and dishwasher.
“If the landlord fails to comply with [the order], then the tenant may undertake the work and charge the landlord the costs of this work up to $80,000. These costs may be set off against rent payable,” Pollack said.
Sharma’s claim for compensation and to terminate Brassey’s tenancy was dismissed.
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.