Tenants damage rental with hot coals: dog ruled at fault

A group of Dunedin tenants escaped carpet repair costs after spilling hot coals on the floor but blaming their dog for tripping them up. Photo / File

A Wellington tenant who allowed a friend to stay over with a shotgun and illegal drugs has been ordered to pay repair costs for her front door after police arrived and kicked it down.

Elsewhere, Dunedin tenants - who dropped hot coals on their carpet - managed to avoid paying damages in a separate case because they claimed they tripped on a dog.

The two cases were among a raft of new decisions by the Tenancy Tribunal that also included a third case in which a Northland mother was ordered to pay plumbing costs after one of her children's toys was found blocking the toilet.

In the Wellington case, tenant Coree Healey was ordered to pay $1570 to the landlord to fix her front door.

It came after police recently arrived at her front door in the suburb of Te Aro and called for those inside to open it.

The flat was unoccupied at the time and when police's "repeated appeals to open the door went unanswered", they kicked it down.

Inside, police found an illegal shotgun and ammunition as well as "class C controlled drugs".

"A male ... known to reside at the address from time to time has been charged with offences related to the items seized," the tribunal adjudicator said.

Healey was not charged. But she admitted letting the man stay at her flat and that she was aware of the firearm, although she thought it wasn't working.

The tribunal adjudicator said there was insufficient evidence to show Healey had used the flat for an unlawful purpose.

However, the adjudicator still ordered Healey to pay for the door's replacement because she had permitted her friend to use the flat for an unlawful purpose.

In Dunedin, the tenancy tribunal adjudicator gave no reason why tenants Caitlin Mathias, Blair Falconer, Jacob Glossop, Rebekah Brennan-Niu, Samuel Van der Byl and Kendal Lewis were carrying hot coals across their rental.

But the six tenants admitted spilling the coals on to the carpet and damaging it.

"Carrying hot coals over a carpeted area is something which could give rise to
damage if the coals were dropped," the adjudicator wrote.

"However, I accept the evidence of the tenants that they had successfully carried
out the manoeuvre twice previously on the same night until the person carrying
the coals tripped over a dog."

The landlord claimed carrying the coals over the carpet was "virtual certainty" for something to go wrong, but the adjudicator disagreed and said the damage was unintentional and the tenants didn't have to pay.

The tenants did, however, have to pay $604 towards cleaning and removing rubbish left behind after their tenancy.

In the third case, in Northland, Angela Kanuta was ordered to pay $1943 to her landlord for a variety of cleaning and damage related matters.

This included a payment of $40 to unblock the rental's toilet after it was found to be have been clogged up with one of her children's toys.