Auckland landlord fails in bid to evict tenants living in flood-damaged home

A different house hit by flooding, with damaged furniture piled up on a sodden lawn in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill. Photo / Rayssa Almeida, RNZ

The landlord of a flood-damaged home has failed to end a tenancy because of rent arrears after a tribunal found the tenants were actually over-paying following the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods.

The tenants, who have name suppression, will stay in their badly damaged rental until September, when they need to vacate for work to be done on the property.

The landlord, who also has name suppression, took them to the tribunal to terminate the tenancy over rent arrears, despite issuing the vacate notice.

The property was “severely impacted” by the flooding in the Auckland region on January 27, with necessary renovations expected to be extensive.

Because of the flood damage, the landlord agreed to drop the rent to $440 per week.

This was accepted by the tenants. However, the reduction was only applied in late April, three months after the damage, and at a higher rate of $462.

Sporadic payments from the tenants after the rent review were accepted by the tribunal to be in part due to difficulties and expenses because of the flooding.

At the hearing, tribunal adjudicator Rex Woodhouse calculated the rent arrears due, if any, by applying the rent of $440 from the date of the floods.

Almost 180 days had passed since the flooding, when the calculations were made, and Woodhouse ruled the tenants should have paid rent of around $11,696.

The total rent that had been paid over that period, even with the sporadic transfers, was $13,096, meaning the tenants had overpaid by around $1400.

“That means the tenants are in fact in credit,” Woodhouse said.

Despite the landlord taking the group to the tribunal, a termination notice had been issuedfor them to move out in September so renovations could get under way.

“I have no doubt that it would not be reasonable to undertake the necessary work with the tenants living in the premises, so can understand why that notice was given,” Woodhouse said.

Renters United president Geordie Rogers told NZME they are still seeing the impacts of the Auckland floods on tenants.

Rogers said renters impacted by the floods have found themselves in a number of difficult situations, including those who were unable to save and replace belongings, to others who would need to leave their rentals because of impending repairs.

The floods had put pressure on tenants in vulnerable positions, Rogers said, and he believed the impact of climate change on housing stock won’t be slowing down.

“The science is suggesting this is not the last time we’ll have a flood of this scale,” he said.

“We are seeing floods and the impact of climate change more commonly, and for many people, [it’s] becoming something they have to actively consider.”

Rogers said it was an issue of equity and finding a balance for renters.

“With the increasing effects of flooding and the Government talking about how we do planned withdrawal from coastal areas, we need to spend time and effort to think about how we do that equitably.”

Hazel Osborne is an Open Justice reporter for NZME and is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. She joined the Open Justice team at the beginning of 2022, previously working in Whakatāne as a court and crime reporter in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.