Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 4812583 — Rent arrears at Room 5, 151 Eban Avenue, Hillcrest, Auckland 0627
Decided 22 Apr 2024 · Published 22 Apr 2024 · Application 4812583
Mixed / unclear
- Rent arrears
Order
- The Tribunal declares that: a. The correct landlord is Joan Burchell. b. The correct tenant is William Findlay. c. The tenancy commenced on 7 February 2023. d. The tenant remains in the tenancy. e. The rent due per week is $455.00. f. The tenant has paid total cash payments of $460.00 to the landlord.
- The hearing is adjourned. If the rent arrears situation is not resolved, the landlord may apply for a further hearing and orders.
Reasons
- The Tribunal has received an application from “The Guest Home Limited” seeking an order for the payment of rent arrears, and termination of the tenancy.
- A hearing was scheduled today at the Tenancy Tribunal in the North Shore District Courthouse. In attendance was Al Burchell for the landlord, and William Findlay the tenant.
- There is no dispute between the parties that there is a tenancy in place, and the parties also agree that rent arrears are owed, although there was a significant difference in estimation by both parties of what the level of rent arrears actually is.
- The parties considered that the issue with rent arrears has arisen because the correct payments are not being made by WINZ. As I indicated to the parties today, the Tribunal does not make orders against WINZ, if there is any rent arrears arising, that is an obligation on the tenant to pay, and orders will be made against the tenant only.
- But it is also clear that both parties want the Tenancy to continue, but they wish to have the rent arrears addressed. Because of that, I have made the declaration hoping to move things along if there are any concerns that WINZ had about starting payments.
- However there is insufficient evidence in order for me to confirm the level of rent arrears that arise, the landlord estimated that the amount owing was around the $6,000 mark, whereas the tenant estimated it would be around the $2,000 mark at most. If the landlord wanted the Tribunal to determine what the precise level of rent arrears was, then the Tribunal would need to receive a proper rent ledger, and if any further request for orders is made in this case, then a business-like rent ledger must be provided.
- Otherwise we also discussed today who the correct applicant would be. Mr Burchell says that the correct landlord is in fact Joan Burchell, and given the names on the tenancy agreement that would make sense.
- Mr Burchell states that his wife is not well. I am sorry to hear that, but ultimately the only person with a right of attendance would be Joan Burchell. If the level of the claim is under $6,000.00, then Mrs Burchell would either need to attend in person, or apply to the Tribunal for a representative to be approved. In the event that this matter was to return to the Tribunal, then Mrs Burchell would need to do either of those two things.
- But for now, given the parties agree on the key matters that I have set out in the declaration above, I am satisfied that it is reasonable to make the declaration in order to hopefully, get any dispute resolved between the parties directly.
- The hearing is now adjourned.