The woman's child was hospitalised with bronchial conditions after living in a Kāinga Ora home that was eventually deemed unfit for tenancy. Photo / File
The woman's child was hospitalised with bronchial conditions after living in a Kāinga Ora home that was eventually deemed unfit for tenancy. Photo / File
A child was hospitalised because of poor conditions in a damp Kāinga Ora property.
The Tenancy Tribunal ordered Kāinga Ora to compensate the mother for emotional harm and losses.
Kāinga Ora apologised, acknowledging its failure to maintain the property contributed to the child’s health issues.
A young child living in a damp Kāinga Ora property was admitted to Starship Hospital suffering from croup and bronchiolitis during a two-year ordeal that eventually meant the rental property was deemed unfit for tenancy.
The child’s mother repeatedly raised concerns with Kāinga Ora, while the family’s GP went as far as to ask for the organisation to move the family out of the damp Auckland home.
Now Kāinga Ora has apologised after being taken to the Tenancy Tribunal, which has found the organisation’s failure to maintain the property contributed to the child’s poor health.
It has been ordered to compensate the woman thousands of dollars for emotional harm, losses and her time.
According to a recently released tribunal decision, the woman and her children, including a baby, moved into the Freemans Bay unit in March 2022.
By September, it was obvious there were issues with excessive moisture, including mould in the laundry, the kitchen cupboards and bumps on the kitchen floor.
The landlord visited the premises and established that work was required to fix the issues, which was completed in February 2023.
However, in early May 2023, one of the woman’s young children was admitted to Starship Hospital suffering from croup and bronchiolitis.
She again told the landlord about the excessive mould in their home and the difficulties she was experiencing in keeping it warm and dry.
She also said her children had been suffering from respiratory issues and one of them had been admitted to hospital for related conditions.
The following month she provided the landlord with a letter from the family GP who requested the family be moved.
The children had both been suffering from recurrent respiratory infections, the house was quite cold, and mould was growing on the windows.
The GP said the condition of the house was likely to be contributing to their health conditions.
In September the GP raised concerns a second time in writing, through the tenant, telling the landlord that readings taken by the tenant showed 80% humidity.
The GP said conditions in the premises were “almost certainly” exacerbating one of the children’s health conditions.
Unfit for tenancy
An asset manager for Kāinga Ora visited the home and noted a number of maintenance issues, including cracked glass on a window and a cracked shower well wall lining.
However, no other obvious sources of moisture or dampness were identified, and it was recommended the woman continue to manage normal condensation on windows, including ventilating and wiping down surfaces.
Her concerns about the children’s health and wanting to move were acknowledged but the organisation was unable to link their illnesses to major property defects. It was instead suggested that transfer options be explored on other grounds.
In March 2024, a new case manager for the landlord visited the property and requested a moisture report.
One of the children was admitted to Starship Hospital with croup and bronchiolitis. Both children had suffered from recurrent respiratory infections. Photo / NZME
The report concluded the property was not fit for tenancy because of excessive humidity and moisture readings.
Most walls showed moisture or were dripping visually.
“From being in the apartment for 15 to 20 minutes I was drenched, shower rooms humidity was excessive,” the report stated.
“There was noted to be a baby in this house and that kind of moisture could possibly affect comfort and health of this child, due to humidity and mould growth hazard.”
It was recorded that the front door, part of the kitchen, all of the upstairs (including the stairs themselves, the bathroom and both bedrooms) had “extremely high or high warning moisture content”.
Kāinga Ora took steps to move the tenant to another premises shortly after the report was issued and the tenancy ended in April 2024.
Tenant moved out of house
The tenant told the Tenancy Tribunal she spent approximately two hours each day on top of her usual housekeeping addressing the mould.
She said that included wiping the windows and the window frames, changing the sheets on the beds and lifting the mattresses off the beds.
The curtains were full of mould and had to be changed.
The tenant said that having dried every window in the house in the morning, by lunchtime the condensation on the windows would have returned and she would need to start again.
Since moving into new premises in April 2024, her children’s health had improved significantly. The family GP provided another letter saying that the improved living environment had resulted in fewer visits to the medical centre for viral infections.
Kāinga Ora told the tribunal that repairs relating to the tenant’s complaint of September 2022 weren’t completed until February 2023 because of the time of the year, the number of resources and different tradespersons required.
It said that given the amount of work required, this was a reasonable timeframe for the repairs.
Following the asset manager’s report in October 2023, the agency believed the property was in a reasonable state of repair and that further investigations were not required.
Kāinga Ora referred to the timely manner in which it acted once the mould/moisture report was requested by the new case worker.
Tribunal says complaints ‘fell on deaf ears’
Tribunal adjudicator Kate Henry said it was a case where a significant award for loss of amenity or rebate in rent should be made.
Henry said the appropriate period of time for compensation should be in respect of the period of time after which the landlord should have completed the original repairs until when the repairs were completed; and in respect of the failure to investigate and take appropriate action should be from when it became clear that the tenant made it clear that the issues with moisture and mould were not resolved at the end of the tenancy. A total 395 days.
The tenant was awarded $6857 compensation for loss of amenity.
At the hearing, the tenant advised that the impact on her was significant.
When describing how the matter affected her the tenant became tearful and said she felt like she was “failing her children”.
Henry said: “I find that it is more likely than not that the landlord’s failure to maintain the premises at least contributed to her child’s poor health.
“While it is not open to me to award damages for personal injury, I find that knowing that the premises were at least contributing to her children’s poor health and having her complaints fall on deaf ears, would have contributed to the tenant’s emotional harm.”
She awarded $3000 for emotional harm to the tenant.
It was also accepted that the tenant had spent a significant amount of time cleaning to manage the mould and trying to be heard by the landlord. She was awarded $5000 as compensation for her time.
Kāinga Ora central and east Auckland regional director John Tubberty told NZME the organisation should have acted more quickly.
“We apologise for the distress experienced by the tenant.
“Once we were aware earlier repair work had not fixed the problem, we moved the tenant to another property and carried out the necessary repairs.
“However, we should have addressed the issue quicker.”
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the HC Post, based in Whangamata. He was previously deputy editor of Cook Islands News.
