Tenants told to meet for \u2018sensitive discussion\u2019 <\/p>\n
According to a recently released decision, the tenants, having just moved into the home, were advised by the property manager in May that they needed to meet for a \u201csensitive discussion\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the meeting, the property manager told them the landlord wished to return to her home and break the tenancy agreement. <\/p>\n
The tenants didn\u2019t agree to break the agreement. <\/p>\n
On June 1 the woman visited the property by arrangement to collect some of her possessions stored in a garage on the property.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later the property manager emailed a letter from the landlord setting out the reasons for her request to break the fixed-term tenancy and offering the tenant compensation. <\/p>\n
The offer was declined. <\/p>\n
On July 2 the property manager requested the tenants\u2019 consent to the woman visiting the property two days later to retrieve further items from the garage, but the visit did not take place. <\/p>\n
\u2018I am losing weight and struggling to sleep\u2019 <\/p>\n
The woman claimed she would suffer severe hardship, which exceeded the hardship the tenant would suffer if the term was reduced and provided letters from a sexual abuse support service and an autism coach in support of her submission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is only one place that I call home and that feels safe and familiar. It is my sanctuary, and I am desperate to move back in so that I can start to move forward with my life,\u201d she told the tribunal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work mainly from home; my work is very stressful and emotionally demanding and therefore I rely on the serenity of my home to enable me to carry out my role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel desperate about my situation, and it is causing me a lot of distress on a daily basis. I feel unable to settle back in as I feel my life is in limbo; I haven\u2019t re-engaged with many of my support people as this situation is really negatively affecting my mental, physical and emotional state, I am losing weight and struggling to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stress of finding a new rental \u2018significant\u2019 <\/p>\n
The tenants said they had been renting a property for six years and spent several months searching before finding a suitable property for themselves and their young daughter.<\/p>\n
They were very distressed to find the landlord wanted to end their tenancy after only a matter of two weeks, which had caused them significant stress.<\/p>\n
One of them said it had impacted her work, sleep, social activities and day-to-day routines and that she had been prescribed sleeping tablets and referred to a psychologist. <\/p>\n
From their recent experience, the stress and financial cost of finding a new rental was significant, and, while they appreciated the landlord\u2019s predicament, they were not willing to subject themselves and their young daughter to the stresses and inconvenience of trying to find another property when they had agreed to a fixed-term tenancy to provide them with security.<\/p>\n
The property manager had offered the landlord a rental property, saying there was a reasonable pool of properties available to rent, but that it had diminished in recent months.<\/p>\n
The property manager had offered the landlord a rental property, saying there was a reasonable pool of properties available to rent, but that it had diminished in recent months. <\/p>\n
Both applications dismissed <\/p>\n
Tribunal adjudicator Geoffrey Baker said it was a difficult decision for the tribunal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile having sympathy for the landlord in her difficult and stressful predicament, the tribunal also has sympathy for the tenant who had contracted to rent the property for a year but who has been asked to give up their home and suffer the significant stress and disruption of moving after only some three months.\u201d <\/p>\n
Because the landlord had not therefore proven on the balance of probabilities that the severe hardship which they would suffer would be greater than the hardship which the tenant would suffer if the term were reduced, the landlord\u2019s claim was dismissed.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the tenants claimed that the landlord breached their quiet enjoyment by having mail still going to the property and the ongoing conversations about breaking the tenancy early and visits for the collection of her possessions.<\/p>\n
Baker said there was no evidence or suggestion that the landlord was intending to harass the tenants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence is that the landlord found herself in a very distressing situation and has tried to negotiate an acceptable solution with the tenant through the property manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tribunal ordered suppression of the parties\u2019 names and identifying details while both the landlord\u2019s and tenants\u2019 applications were dismissed.<\/p>\n
Advocacy group says decision was \u2018fair\u2019 <\/p>\n
New Zealand Property Investors Federation advocacy manager Matt Ball said the circumstances were unusual, and it was hard not to have sympathy for both the landlord and tenants. <\/p>\n
New Zealand Property Investors Federation advocacy manager Matt Ball said it was an “interesting and sad case”. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
\u201cFixed-term tenancies are there to provide certainty and security to both landlord and tenant and, as the Tenancy Tribunal notes, they are not set aside lightly. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, the tribunal has considered the hardship on both sides to be severe and so has not set aside the fixed-term tenancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis seems fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the lesson for landlords was that fixed-term tenancies are what they say they are – fixed term. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are renting out a property (where) there is even the slightest chance you might have to move back into, for example, if it\u2019s your former home, then think very carefully about entering into a fixed-term tenancy. <\/p>\n
\u201cA periodic tenancy might be a better fit.\u201d <\/p>\n
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The woman said her PTSD was exacerbated by her having autism and, in order to heal properly, she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,32034,85,1863,1040,2741,23552,14736,2837,2245,8127,32032,1345,671,5511,10054,4960,11517,2683,32033,91,111,43,139,69,2847,32035,22400,17292,61,6382,1908,13118,5828,4518,1354],"class_list":["post-34114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-assaulted","tag-australia","tag-back","tag-bid","tag-claim","tag-claimed","tag-domestic","tag-during","tag-early","tag-end","tag-fixedterm","tag-home","tag-incident","tag-just","tag-landlord","tag-live","tag-loses","tag-move","tag-moved","tag-nelson","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-residence","tag-tenancy","tag-tenants","tag-to","tag-took","tag-trauma","tag-violence","tag-wanted","tag-weeks","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34114","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=34114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}