In June, K\u0101inga Ora sought to evict Amy Lupton, claiming she had failed to keep the home reasonably clean and tidy, had damaged the house, and undertaken unauthorised alterations. <\/p>\n
It asked the Tenancy Tribunal to terminate the tenancy, claiming she hadn\u2019t made the repairs it had asked for. <\/p>\n
And it was submitted that this wasn\u2019t the first time the tenant had damaged the property. Inspections in February and August 2024 found the power supply and electrical wiring had been tampered with, leaving wires exposed and creating a fire risk. <\/p>\n
It organised contractors to repair the damage and unconsented alterations, with the work completed by the end of August last year. But despite repeated warnings, the tenant continued to make modifications to the house, creating a serious health and safety risk. <\/p>\n
The house was to be demolished<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, at the hearing, Lupton said K\u0101inga Ora had told her two years earlier it planned to demolish the house. <\/p>\n
Not wanting to trouble them over \u201ca number of maintenance items\u201d and believing it was a waste of the government department\u2019s money, given the pending demolition, the tenants took it upon themselves to complete the necessary repairs, believing there was no harm in doing so. She also claimed the alterations weren\u2019t significant. <\/p>\n
Lupton told the tribunal she had remedied all the matters and had photographs to prove it. <\/p>\n
Adjudicator Lily Ryken gave Lupton until the end of the day of the hearing to provide the photographs. When none were forthcoming, she made an order terminating the tenancy on Sunday, June 29, this year. <\/p>\n
In making the order, Ryken said evidence presented by K\u0101inga Ora showed Lupton had \u201dsubstantially altered” the home.<\/p>\n
She found Lupton had failed to keep the property reasonably clean and tidy, had undertaken unauthorised modifications and had damaged the premises. <\/p>\n
\u201cMajor work such as removing the laundry tub and installing a make-shift shower have been carried out. There are also exposed wires, and the stovetop appears broken.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if the tenant had received notice that the premises were going to be demolished, this does not permit them to undertake alterations and damage the premises without the consent of the landlord.\u201d <\/p>\n
The tenant sought a rehearing at the Tenancy Tribunal, but was unsuccessful. Photo \/ 123RF<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t believe the eviction was serious <\/p>\n
Two days before her eviction, Lupton applied for a rehearing, claiming she didn\u2019t know where to email the photographs, and she didn\u2019t believe the landlord was serious in seeking termination. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn retrospect, she had a lot more that she wanted to say,\u201d the decision said. <\/p>\n
Last month, the landlord again inspected the property, taking additional photographs which it produced at a hearing a week later. <\/p>\n
These showed the rubbish had been removed from inside the house, and the holes in the bedroom walls had been fixed. In the backyard, the pool had been removed and the grass had been reinstated. <\/p>\n
But the majority of repairs hadn\u2019t been undertaken, including removing the shower from the laundry. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe shower tray is still present, and the laundry tub has been placed over the top. The plumbing around the area is leaking.\u201d <\/p>\n
During the inspection, new plumbing was discovered under the house, which was leaking sewage. Lupton claimed they had installed the plumbing after a leak two years earlier. <\/p>\n
While the tenant had replaced doors in the kitchen and hallway, the repairs were inadequate because the doors were too short and the handles didn\u2019t work. <\/p>\n
The landlord also remained concerned about the state of the floorboards throughout much of the house, which the tenant had replaced as a result of a leak under the house, causing the floors to rot. <\/p>\n
The inspection found the work hadn\u2019t been undertaken by professionals, and many of the materials were non-compliant or the work didn\u2019t meet health and safety standards. <\/p>\n
Ryken found Lupton had ample opportunity since the hearing in June to provide evidence the tenants had remedied matters in the 14-day notice, but had failed to do so. They had also had ample opportunity to prepare submissions, but, again, had failed to do so. <\/p>\n
Ryken also rejected the tenant\u2019s claims that they had altered the house because it was going to be demolished, they hadn\u2019t taken the eviction notice seriously, and they needed to remain there to look after their dog, who had just had puppies. <\/p>\n
She said none of these issues was a defence against the breaches the tenant had committed and she upheld the original termination order and the house was to be given back to K\u0101inga Ora by September 14. <\/p>\n
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In contrast, photos taken in March this year showed concrete and paving stones had replaced grassy areas in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,41902,25519,6120,17898,41903,18791,42,10053,23543,12514,41901,1446,43,6134,23544,19719,13120,1238,13672,10050,5662,18937,61,40,38,41,39,23849,1316,1354],"class_list":["post-48145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-alterations","tag-amy","tag-breaching","tag-didnt","tag-evict","tag-fighting","tag-headlines","tag-house","tag-kinga","tag-leave","tag-lupton","tag-making","tag-news","tag-obligations","tag-ora","tag-ordered","tag-remain","tag-serious","tag-state","tag-tenant","tag-think","tag-threatened","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-unauthorised","tag-when","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48145","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=48145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}