Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 4492220 — Rent arrears at 8 River Road, Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland 0610
Decided 20 Sept 2023 · Published 20 Sept 2023 · Application 4492220
Landlord favoured
- Rent arrears
- Property damage
Order
- No application for suppression has been made in this case and no suppression orders apply around publication of this decision.
- Gregory William Baker must pay Topline Rentals Limited $7,268.18 immediately, calculated as shown in table below: DescriptionLandlord Rent arrears to 11 February 2023 Cleaning $6,314.29 $700.00 Lock replacement$233.45 Filing fee reimbursement$20.44 Total payable by Tenant to Landlord$7,268.18
- This order replaces the Tribunal’s order dated 7 July 2023.
Reasons
- Mehul Mody attended the hearing for the landlord.
- The tenant did not attend. The Tribunal’s file indicates the Tribunal notified the tenant of the date and time of the hearing proceeded. I proceeded with the hearing in the tenant’s absence.
- The Tribunal has already made orders for rent arrears and lock replacement.
- The remaining issue for determination is whether the Tribunal should make an order against the tenant for failing to leave the premises reasonably clean. Introduction
- As directed by the Tribunal, today Mr Mody brought photographs of the premises after the tenancy had ended to the hearing. Mr Mody produced only his photographs (not the cleaners) and brought along his computer on which the images had been uploaded to prove the date they had been taken.
- The landlord has claims for cleaning costs of $845.25. Legal principles
- At the end of their tenancy, tenants must leave the premises reasonably clean and tidy and remove all rubbish: s 40(1)(e)(iii) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986(RTA).
- The landlord must provide the premises to the tenant in a reasonable state of cleanliness at the beginning of the tenancy: s 45(1)(a) of the RTA.
- The tenant must then return the premises to the landlord in a reasonably clean and tidy condition. “Reasonably clean” means clean to the standard an average bystander. A “reasonable” state of cleanliness does not mean spotless, immaculate, or commercially clean, hotel or motel standard. A landlord therefore may have some work to get the premises up to standard for a new tenant and cannot claim the cost of that to the tenant.
- A tenant does not have to leave the premises cleaner and tidier than at the start of the tenancy. A claim for cleaning may be dismissed if there is no proof of the premises’ condition at the start of the tenancy. 1 1 Stewart Benson Residential Tenancy Law in New Zealand (Thomson Reuters, Wellington, 2018) at
- 12.
- The onus for establishing the claim, sits with the person making it on the balance of probabilities. In this case, the landlord is seeking to recover cleaning costs. Therefore, the landlord must prove that the tenant did not leave the premises reasonably clean and tidy. Discussion
- Mr Mody relied on entry photographs taken at the beginning of the tenancy to prove the premises’ state of cleanliness.
- The tenant had been living in the premises for some time but took over as tenant on 6 December 2022. As mentioned in the Tribunal’s earlier decision he moved out early about five weeks later on about 9 January 2023. Conclusion
- I order the tenant to pay $700.00 towards the cost of cleaning. That is less than the amount sought because the photographs indicate the premises were not reasonably clean at the beginning of the premises and the tenant should only have to pay the cost of bring the premises up to a reasonable state of cleanliness.
- Although, the tenant had lived in the premises previously as a flatmate, he was not a tenant at that stage, so he was not liable to provide the premises in a reasonably clean and tidy state at the end of the previous tenancy. Inclusion of earlier order
- I include the Tribunal’s earlier order in this final order for ease of enforcement. The earlier order is cancelled. The Tribunal’s earlier reasons for those orders stand.