Tenant ordered to pay after landlord finds worst flea infestation he'd ever seen

The landlord was told the tenant's dogs spent "considerable time" in the house, leading to an uncontrolled flea infestation. Photo / iStock

A tenant who stubbed out cigarettes on their bathroom basin and left their Te Awamutu rental with one of the worst flea infestations their landlord had ever seen has been ordered to pay up.

The Tenancy Tribunal ordered Roxanne Bayliss to pay her former landlord, Robert Van Kalken, one of two trustees for the Van Kalken Family Trust, nearly $2000 in damages and reimbursement for cleaning.

Van Kalken took Bayliss to the tribunal seeking reparations for the more than 19 hours he spent cleaning the trashed rental after she left.

The tenant did not attend the tribunal hearing.

The tribunal saw six photos of the rental's bathroom, showing cigarette burn marks on the rim and inside the bowl of the basin, and hair that had been removed from the plughole.

Van Kalken also claimed Bayliss left gunge, slime, food and beverage marks on carpets in every room of the house except the hallway.

The tenant said the marks were due to a children's toy, but the stains were only removed when the carpet was professionally cleaned, after two to three hours of additional scrubbing.

Van Kalken told the tribunal that when he entered the house in early March this year after Bayliss had left, he found what he described as "one of the worst infestations of fleas that he has ever experienced as a landlord".

The infestation was only contained after the house and garage were flea bombed twice.

"Mr Van Kalken states that he was told by members of the tenant's family that during the tenancy these dogs spent a considerable amount of time inside the house," the tribunal heard.

The landlord also claimed that Bayliss illegally sublet the rental's garage to another family, putting extra strain on the home's facilities.

"Mr Van Kalken states that at any one time eight people may have lived at the property, the maximum under the agreement was four people, and that all used the facilities inside the house."

The extra people staying at the house, coupled with the tenant failing to use the extractor fan in the bathroom and not properly ventilating the room only exacerbated the rental's mould issue, Van Kalken said.

"The landlord states that the ceiling in the bathroom and the laundry were so badly affected by mould that after cleaning the landlord had to repaint the ceilings and walls," the tribunal heard.

In a recently released decision, Bayliss was ordered to pay a total of $1906.40, made up of compensation for cleaning, repairs and unpaid water bills.