The recent Tenancy Tribunal decision noted the \u201cpremises may have been left unsecured for an unknown period\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tribunal adjudicator Mike Edison found the tenant \u201cimplicitly gave permission for other persons to be in the premises by not taking steps to remove them or prevent access\u201d and was liable for their actions under the Residential Tenancies Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the tenant says the damage occurred when he was out, it is difficult to believe such severe damage only happened then,\u201d Edison said.<\/p>\n
The Tenancy Tribunal dismissed the tenant’s explanation that others had caused the damage \u201cwhen he was out\u201d. Photo \/ 123RF<\/p>\n
Even if that had been the case, Edison considered the tenant was also liable on the basis that he permitted other persons to cause the damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis does not depend on permission to be on the premises, or whether the tenant was there when the damage happened,\u201d Edison said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tenant knew someone was causing damage but took no steps to secure the premises, failed to tell the landlord what was happening and, in my opinion, failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent entry or to have the trespassers removed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edison found the tenant could have served a trespass notice, requested the landlord change the locks, insisted the police attend, or that the landlord call the police.<\/p>\n
Given all of that, Edison found the tenant should be held liable for the damage. <\/p>\n
Building repairs and meth decontamination<\/p>\n
According to the ruling, the property was a small one-bedroom unit with an open-plan lounge and kitchen, a separate bathroom, and a garage.<\/p>\n
The tenant moved out on July 7, and an insurance loss adjuster went to the property on July 14.<\/p>\n
The assessor said in order to remedy the damage, the wall linings would need to be removed and the doors replaced. <\/p>\n
They also said the carpet needed replacing in the bedroom and lounge. The skirting boards, kitchen cabinet, splashback, bench and oven all had to be replaced. <\/p>\n
The assessor said the tiles in the bathroom, laundry, and kitchen would need to be replaced if they couldn\u2019t be cleaned.<\/p>\n
The landlord provided a quote from a builder for repairs totalling $47,524.<\/p>\n
This included repairs to the framing, gib, doors, tiles, and windows, with a full bathroom and kitchen replacement.<\/p>\n
An electrician quoted $16,942 to replace the wiring. <\/p>\n
In an email dated July 30, the electrician explained the cabling had been damaged, and many of the switches, power points and light fittings had also been damaged. <\/p>\n
All the appliances at the property had been \u201cdamaged beyond repair\u201d and the quote included a replacement stove, oven, and rangehood, as well as a hot water cylinder.<\/p>\n
Replacement carpet in the lounge and bedroom was quoted at $1745.<\/p>\n
The property was tested for methamphetamine on July 31, by way of a 10-sample composite. <\/p>\n
The total methamphetamine present in all the samples was 280 ug\/100cm sq. <\/p>\n
There was evidence of manufacture, according to the testing report, which included photographs of utensils. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is consistent with the very high level of contamination,\u201d Edison said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence establishes that the tenant either used, or permitted the premises to be used, for the unlawful purpose of manufacturing, possessing, and\/or using drugs, in breach of section 40(2)(b) of the [Residential Tenancies] Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edison said the tenant knew the people he invited to live in the garage were drug users. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe extent of the contamination is suggestive of manufacture. It is unlikely this could have happened in a small unit without the tenant\u2019s knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edison ordered $11,442.50 be paid for methamphetamine decontamination.<\/p>\n
In total, Quach had to pay $73,782.20.<\/p>\n
The only item the tenant didn\u2019t have to foot the bill for was the hot water cylinder, as it was \u201cunclear if this stopped working because of damage caused by the tenant\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe landlord indicated it was 10-15 years old. It may simply have reached the end of its life,\u201d Edison said.<\/p>\n
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He then asked those people to leave, and after that, their \u201cassociates\u201d started coming to the property and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[122654,28824,122656,1343,3595,8604,2562,1239,22510,17153,42333,28090,14768,55264,35838,564,2082,1874,692,42,27277,10053,16420,17053,10054,122655,43,19719,86606,2744,814,122657,46606,35924,10050,61,40,38,41,39,24034,6736,25361,1316,102],"class_list":["post-199225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-73k","tag-arrived","tag-assessor","tag-associates","tag-by","tag-caused","tag-claims","tag-condition","tag-damage","tag-damaged","tag-debris","tag-decomposing","tag-every","tag-everywhere","tag-floor","tag-food","tag-for","tag-found","tag-he","tag-headlines","tag-holes","tag-house","tag-human","tag-insurance","tag-landlord","tag-methusing","tag-news","tag-ordered","tag-papakura","tag-pay","tag-property","tag-scattered","tag-severely","tag-surface","tag-tenant","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-walls","tag-was","tag-waste","tag-when","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}