{"id":85601,"date":"2025-10-18T03:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/85601\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T03:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:22:07","slug":"auckland-businessman-peter-mazany-to-pay-9k-over-old-and-crowded-boarding-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/85601\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland businessman Peter Mazany to pay $9k over old and crowded boarding house"},"content":{"rendered":"

He has acknowledged he was at fault, saying he didn\u2019t fully understand the rules around boarding houses<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Originally, the sites were slated for development, with plans to build 26 new terraced townhouses, but planning delays, Covid lockdowns<\/a> and supply chain issues delayed his plans. <\/p>\n

Instead, Mazany rented out rooms in one of the houses, first as a residential tenancy and later as a boarding house. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe house was set for demolition but the plans were delayed and it became a boarding house. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

In a lengthy and detailed decision, Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator Robert Kee acknowledged the rules relating to boarding houses were not only complex, but it was the first time he\u2019d dealt with such a case. <\/p>\n

According to the decision, the small and modest house was originally two or three bedrooms but had been divided into six, with an open plan kitchen and dining. <\/p>\n

Beside the house was an old, steel-clad garage that had been converted into a three-bedroomed sleepout, which was at that stage unconsented.<\/p>\n

Typically, there were nine tenants, with six living in the house and three in the sleepout, who shared the facilities in the main house.<\/p>\n

In June 2021, Benjamin Bruce Doyle moved into the house, signing a flatmate\/house-sharing agreement, because Mazany reasoned that, as he regularly worked from the address, he was the head tenant.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe kitchen inside the house. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

The following year, Mazany realised he should treat the house as a boarding house and replaced the tenancy agreements accordingly. <\/p>\n

By 2024, Doyle became increasingly concerned about the condition of the house, including the presence of asbestos, moisture ingress and mould.<\/p>\n

Mazany claims Doyle wasn\u2019t opening his window and left his belongings in a room in the house that he used without permission. <\/p>\n

Doyle left the property in May last year, after being asked to leave in March. <\/p>\n

Investigations commence<\/p>\n

After his departure, Doyle complained to Tenancy Services and Fire and Emergency New Zealand about the poor condition of the premises. <\/p>\n

While the Tenancy Service\u2019s compliance and investigation team did not explore all of the issues it identified at the property, because of the pending Tenancy Tribunal case, which was heard in the North Shore District Court earlier this year, it did issue a report determining a few. <\/p>\n

Mazany didn\u2019t dispute most of the Tenancy Services or Fire and Emergency findings and accepted his company was in breach of the rules for boarding house tenancies. <\/p>\n

But he emphasised to the tribunal that he acted in good faith and in what he believed were the tenants\u2019 best interests, providing the tribunal with a survey of seven past and present tenants who were satisfied with him and the house.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe shared living room at the boarding house in Auckland. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Doyle didn\u2019t accept that, believing the company had breached its obligations and ignored his legitimate concerns. <\/p>\n

In the tribunal decision, adjudicator Kee allowed some of Doyle\u2019s claims, while rejecting others. <\/p>\n

He found Mazany failed to provide a correct tenancy agreement or lodge the bond, but rejected Doyle\u2019s claims the landlord hadn\u2019t kept the premises reasonably clean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premises are old and dingy. The interior could do with a repaint and a thorough deep-clean would not go amiss,\u201d Kee found.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the level of cleanliness could be better, I am not satisfied that the landlord breached his duties in this regard by failing to ensure that the premises was reasonably clean overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doyle also complained about the state of the house, alleging problems with everything from the decking and cladding to the vegetation and wiring. <\/p>\n

Kee said even though there were plans to demolish the house, it still had to be kept in a reasonable fashion. <\/p>\n

He said while the house was an outdated design, and wouldn\u2019t be a comfortable home to live in, \u201cthe conversion to boarding house-style rooms made it worse\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kee found the house wasn\u2019t maintained, the lean-to laundry had leaked, its flooring was damaged and the electrical plugs were insufficient. <\/p>\n

Photographs of the section showed \u201cthe grounds were inaccessible and likely provided an inviting habitat for rats and mice\u201d. <\/p>\n

While he accepted Doyle\u2019s concerns about the deck, there was no independent evidence that it was unsound. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am satisfied that Mazany Holdings did not maintain the house to a reasonable standard of repair in respect to the lean-to, the paths and garden maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kee also found Mazany Holdings intentionally breached Healthy Homes Standards for heating, water ingress and drainage. <\/p>\n

Overcrowding at the property<\/p>\n

He also ruled the house was too small to accommodate the number of people who were living there, <\/p>\n

\u201cA family of six would struggle to make a house like this work, let alone six independent adults,\u201d the decision said. <\/p>\n

Mazany has since reduced the number of tenants in the house to five, meaning it no longer qualifies as a boarding house. <\/p>\n

In his decision, Kee ordered Mazany Holdings to pay Doyle $9889, of which about half, $4600, was for exemplary damages. <\/p>\n

\"AA bedroom at the address, where Peter Mazany says he provided safe, warm, dry and affordable accommodation. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Mazany said he accepted the tribunal\u2019s decision and had attempted to apologise to Doyle. <\/p>\n

He said he found himself in the situation because he hadn\u2019t been able to get on with the planned demolition. <\/p>\n

\u201cPart of it is just life happens, so you get Covid, you get delays, you get supply chain issues, you get a whole lot of issues which prevented me from demolishing them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mazany said he thought he\u2019d complied with the law and didn\u2019t think there were safety issues at the house, explaining that he provided safe, warm, dry and affordable accommodation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realise that it was actually a boarding house situation, although it\u2019s very clear that if it\u2019s six people or more, then it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019d had many happy tenants, some who had lived at the property for four years. <\/p>\n

Doyle was contacted for comment.<\/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":"He has acknowledged he was at fault, saying he didn\u2019t fully understand the rules around boarding houses. Originally,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[65092,74,95,51,34705,6255,26698,65093,28642,29414,65094,14236,10053,296,65091,111,43,139,69,9716,1523,2744,5413,2171,29413,1857,61,65095,3608],"class_list":["post-85601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-9k","tag-after","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-boarding","tag-businessman","tag-crowded","tag-demolish","tag-develop","tag-developer","tag-dingy","tag-held","tag-house","tag-into","tag-mazany","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-old","tag-over","tag-pay","tag-peter","tag-plans","tag-rented","tag-site","tag-to","tag-townhouses","tag-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85601","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=85601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}