Published tribunal order
Tenancy Tribunal case 5306561 — Rent arrears at 53A Maplesden Drive, Clendon Park, Auckland 2103
Decided 18 Aug 2025 · Published 18 Aug 2025 · Application 5306561
Landlord favoured
- Rent arrears
Order
- Paul Jason Bennett must pay Fair Rentals Limited $6,096.03 immediately, calculated as shown in the table below.
Reasons
- Both parties attended the hearing by telephone.
- The landlord has applied for rent arrears and refund of the bond.
- The tenant acknowledged that he left the tenancy on or about 26 June 2025 without giving the landlord notice and he did not return the keys. The landlord discovered that the tenant had vacated the premises at an inspection on 3 July 2025. The landlord seeks rent owed to that date and has provided rent records which prove the amount owing. The tenant accepts the arrears owed.
- The landlord is entitled to refund of the bond to offset the arrears owed. While the tenancy agreement provides for a bond of $2,720, the balance held at the Bond Centre is $2,645.76.
- The landlord also has other claims against the tenant for damages in excess of $7,000 which they did not detail in their application. To that end, the landlord filed invoices regarding these claims only three days before the hearing and says there are some other invoices to come.
- The Tribunal can only usually deal with the claims detailed in the application and will not deal with new claims at short notice unless the other party is aware of the claims; consents to dealing with them; and, provided there is sufficient hearing time. While the tenant indicated that he was prepared to deal with the other claims today, the time allocated for the hearing is not enough. Also, the landlord needs to gather all their supporting evidence for the hearing. As discussed at the hearing, the landlord must file a separate application articulating all the remaining claims for damages against the tenant which can then be processed by Tenancy Services and allocated appropriate hearing time.