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A LANDLORD has tried to charge tenants $2,622 for receipts they should have supplied for free in a move a lawyer has slammed “outrageous”.
New Zealand property managers Quinovic have been ordered to pay $270.44 compensation to tenants after illegally asking them to pay for the history of their rent payments.
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According to Stuff, they were required by law to give the tenants the information for free on request.
Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator Jane Northwood said the money grab attempt was disgraceful.
She explained: “While providing the information does take some time, it is an obligation on the landlord to do so.”
The group of tenants, whose names have been suppressed, began residing at the property in question on November 1, 2019 and left on August 2 last year.
The landlord claimed they had to pay to repair damage to bathroom tiles – which occurred when the tenants tried to fix a chin-up bar to the house – and a door.
At the time, the tenants and the landlord agreed the damage was superficial and not worth fixing as bathroom renovations were set to take place at the end of their tenancy agreement.
But the landlord later asked the tenants to pay insurance excess of $250 to go toward a $10,000 bathroom repair job.
Northwood said: “While I accept that all this needs to be done to repair the floor, effectively the landlord will be benefiting from a completely new bathroom as he had intended to do at the end of the tenancy.”
The Tribunal found the tenants would not have to pay the insurance excess, though they would have to pay $80.50 to repaint a door they damaged with a trolley.
