Gisborne landlord fined for bond delay and loss of amenity, tenant awarded $1187

A Gisborne tenant asked for a change to a complicated power metering set-up at their unit, which occasionally left them without power for hours. Photo / Anne-Marie De Bruin

A Gisborne tenancy’s power supply system, which sometimes meant the unit did not have electricity for hours, has been described as “somewhat unusual” by a Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator.

A recently released Tenancy Tribunal decision, from a hearing in June, shows the tenant of a self-contained unit within a boarding house complex on Ormond Rd was awarded $1187 in compensation and exemplary damages from their landlord because of failure to lodge the bond and loss of amenity.

The tenant successfully applied for name suppression as they were substantially successful with their claim.

Landlord Nationwide Property Management was represented by Kylie Wilson.

Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator Scott Young wrote in his decision that the tenancy began on March 23 last year and ended on December 20.

The landlord had received the bond before the tenancy started but the bond was not lodged with the Bond Centre until October 24, 2024.

“I find they have committed an unlawful act,” Young wrote.

“The landlord’s representative said that it was not her role within the company to deal with bond payments and that she didn’t know what had occurred with the bond.”

Young was critical of the response from the landlord’s representative.

“Providing a landlord representative at the hearing who is not aware of the background to the claim is not helpful and suggests a degree of disinterest in the process,” he said.

“The landlord operates a residential tenancy as a commercial operation. I consider that the delay in lodging the bond of more than six months is an aggravating factor.”

He awarded $700 to the tenant for the breach.

The tenant also made claims on the grounds of failure to maintain and breach of quiet enjoyment.

“The supply of power to the tenant was under what appeared to be a somewhat unusual system.”

Young said the unit was separately metered from the rest of the complex and tenants were required to prepay for power in cash onsite or by bank transfer to the owner, who was based in China.

“There is an inevitable delay between payments being made to the owner in China and the payments appearing in the owner’s bank account. This causes a delay in the provision of power to the tenant of sometimes a matter of days,” Young wrote.

“The tenant’s particular circumstances showed an even more complicated scenario. The process for allowing power to be provided to the tenant’s unit when the tenant had paid by bank transfer was that the landlord would take a modem to the tenant’s unit, so that they could connect by Wi-Fi to the metering system held by the owner in China.”

Despite the tenant’s requests to the landlord to change the system, nothing was done and the modem connection process resulted in no power for up to two hours.

Young determined there had been a “relatively minor” loss of amenity and ordered the landlord to pay $400 compensation to the tenant for loss of amenity, any breach of the tenant’s quiet enjoyment and failure to maintain.

The tenant made a further claim of unlawful entry, saying two contractors arrived at her door without notice to remove the existing oven and replace it with a new one.

“Neither contractor spoke English and the tenant was unable to get the contractors to understand that they should leave. The tenant eventually gave in and consented to the contractors entering. As a result of that consent, I do not find that the landlord has committed an unlawful act,” Young wrote.

“The oven removed by the contractors contained the tenant’s pots and pans. The parties agreed that $60 would be an acceptable compensation sum.”

The landlord was also ordered to pay $27 to reimburse the tenant’s tribunal filing fee.

In addition, the Bond Centre was directed to pay the tenant the bond of $1840.