Tenant Lynette Chivon Pedersen ordered to pay after abandoning damaged house

A tenant has been ordered to pay $27,000 after the Tenancy Tribunal found the house was left in a 'damaged and very untidy state'. Photo / 123rf

When Lynette Chivon Pedersen moved out of her rental property she left it in a damaged and untidy state that took the landlord 40 hours to clean up.

But it wasn’t just what the tenant left behind that was the problem, it was what she took away with her too.

When the landlord turned up after being notified in March by neighbours that Pedersen had moved out of the property she’d rented for four years, they discovered the property’s carport, gate and garden shed were all gone.

Sections of the front fence were also missing, as were the curtains from inside every room in the house.

Pedersen had also taken the house keys.

The landlord, whose name is suppressed, sought a determination from the Tenancy Tribunal for rent arrears, change of locks, cleaning, rubbish removal, repairs, painting and replacement costs.

Pedersen didn’t turn up to October’s hearing, which was conducted by telephone, but the landlord did, providing photographs showing the state of the house when Pedersen left.

No photographs were provided from when Pedersen’s tenancy began, or from inspections while she lived there.

In its recently released decision, the tribunal found the house was left in a damaged and very untidy state, with rubbish left both inside and outside the house. It took the landlord 40 hours to clean the house through a company brought in to remove the rubbish.

The tribunal found there were numerous holes in the walls, which had also been graffitied. Doors were damaged and several windows had been broken. The carpet was damaged, stained and smelly.

The metal legs on the carport had been sliced off so it could be removed.

In its decision the tribunal said the landlord had no information about what happened near the end of Ms Pedersen’s tenancy.

“She speculated that Ms Pedersen may have sold these items.”

The tribunal said the landlord didn’t have to prove that Pedersen was responsible for the damage, only that the damage occurred while she was living there.

It was then up to Pedersen to prove that the damage was caused by someone who had entered the house without her consent. The decision said there was no evidence of this.

It found Pedersen was liable for the landlord’s loss.

The tribunal awarded the landlord $27,170.22 - almost half of which was for rent arrears, given Pedersen’s lack of notice.

The carport, gate and garden shed were worth $4000 and a further $5000 to repaint the home’s interior.

But the decision said the information about the fence was less clear. The landlord argued the fence was damaged when the palings were forcibly removed.

While the tribunal accepted the fence was damaged during the tenancy, without evidence of the cost of replacing the new fence, it took a cautious approach, ordering Pedersen pay $800 - about 30% of what the landlord sought.

With the $1800 bond awarded to the landlord, Pedersen was ordered $25,370.22 immediately.

The decision made no mention of the kitchen sink.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.