She told the tribunal that she would often clear the toilet blockages herself, but on four occasions a builder had to be called in. On one occasion, the downstairs toilet overflowed with faeces.
Waterlogged carpet
She also detailed seven floods, all of which, she said, occurred by the downstairs toilet and spread out into the rumpus room, leaving the carpet wet.
She provided correspondence showing she had raised the problems of flooding throughout the tenancy, including a video from the last flood in June before she gave notice, showing waterlogged carpet outside the toilets and rumpus room. The carpet made a “squelching” noise when it was walked over.
There was also water flowing in a channel under the house, adjacent to a wall.
The tenant’s daughter said she had to wear shoes to get to her bedroom and feared the area was unhygienic.
Some of the woman’s possessions got wet, including sentimental items that couldn’t be replaced.
As a result, the tenants were unable to use either of the two toilets in the house or the bathroom overnight, and they had to use the kitchen if they needed water for washing.
She told the tribunal the final straw came when commercial cleaners arrived at the house, erected a sign saying “Caution temporary work site notice” and advised the site would be safe two and a half hours later, referring to antimicrobial chemicals, contaminated water and wet floors.
On reading that, the woman said she didn’t feel safe and gave notice she intended to move out.
The woman acknowledged the landlords responded on each occasion but said they should have done more intensive investigations earlier, saying it was “difficult and stressful” dealing with blocked toilets.
Landlords: tenants’ complaints were investigated
In response, the landlords, Anita and Scott Munro, told the hearing the house was “fairly old” with original pipes and they couldn’t have foreseen that tree roots would have grown through them.
They disputed the woman’s accounts of floods, instead providing correspondence of five complaints they received from the tenant relating to water leaks. Each one was investigated but had failed to pinpoint the causes.
They also disputed the woman’s claims the toilets had blocked seven times, saying their records showed it had happened three times, with plumbers also attending to fix a leaking kitchen tap and problems with a toilet cistern.
They acknowledged that the tenants couldn’t use the water in the bathrooms for 24 hours after the June flood, which was why they had a Portaloo delivered urgently.
They agreed this wasn’t ideal but explained it was only for a short period of time and had it been any longer they would have looked to relocate the tenant.
The couple say they were never advised of hygiene concerns and defended the decision to call in commercial cleaners, saying that was the advice they had received.
The couple told the hearing the maintenance issues, which couldn’t be foreseen, were properly investigated and resolved.
They agreed the tenant was entitled to some compensation and offered to reimburse them at $200 a week for nine weeks of her tenancy, a total of $1800.
In her decision, adjudicator Melissa Allan found the issues experienced were not foreseeable and said the landlord had responded promptly.
She also found the tenant had overstated the issues of the tenancy recurring and the extent of her concerns about the flooding were not communicated to the landlord.
Allan found it was appropriate the landlord had offered compensation, but found no further award for compensation was required.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
