Rental had inadequate insulation, smoke alarms, and ‘fourth bedroom’ was cold, wet sleepout

The only smoke alarm in the house would go off 20 times a day, sometimes in the middle of the night, according to the tenants.

A landlord has been ordered to pay $11,157 in compensation to a tenant after she put his children’s lives “at risk” through a series of health and safety breaches.

Yiqin Wang, aka Vicki Wang, rented a house to the Auckland tenant, who has name suppression, with inadequate insulation and smoke alarms, and incomplete tenancy agreements. She also incorrectly listed the Te Atatu South property as being four bedrooms instead of three.

The renter complained to the Tenancy Tribunal that Wang breached the Residential Tenancies Act.

“In my view, the landlord’s non-compliance put the tenant and his children’s lives at risk,” Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator Michael Kan said in his recent decision on the case.

“It is unacceptable - the landlord’s disregard for her tenant and his children’s safety is disturbing.”

In December 2021, the tenants moved in and shortly after informed the letting agent hired by Wang to rent out the house that it was not insulated.

The agent told Wang she would need to comply with the Healthy Homes standards within 90 days but despite this and a text months later telling the tenants the job would be done, it never happened.

Neither she nor the letting agent signed the tenancy agreement and crucial documents regarding Healthy Homes compliance were missing.

Contacting Wang was difficult for the tenant and they often could not reach her because she was out of the country or not responding to messages.

The property did not have working smoke alarms with the only one in the house not functioning properly and sounding 20 times a day for unknown reasons, the decision said.

This would happen at all hours and each time it would frighten the children. The tenant replaced the battery but the problem persisted.

In the tenancy agreement, which was submitted to the tribunal as evidence, it said there were working smoke alarms within three metres of each bedroom. Kan said this was incorrect.

The decision also said Wang should have insulated the home to the requirements and failing to do so was an unlawful act.

The rental was advertised as a four-bedroom home. However, the tenant discovered that when it was sold to Wang it was advertised as being three bedrooms.

During their tenancy, one of the tenant’s children lived in the “fourth room”, which was a detached dwelling, but because it was so wet and cold the boy was forced to move back into the main house.

Kan ruled the room was not up to Healthy Homes standards and questioned whether Wang had consent from the council to use the room as a bedroom.

The tenant was also entitled to compensation as the home was listed at a higher rate than appropriate.

The property, which was on a fixed-term agreement, was set to be demolished for development in the future but it would not be immediate.

Wang did not attend the hearing in June but the tenant did and was accompanied by a support person.

The Herald’s attempts to contact Wang were unsuccessful.

Hazel Osborne is an Open Justice reporter for NZME and is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. She joined the Open Justice team at the beginning of 2022, previously working in Whakatāne as a court and crime reporter in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.