Southland smokers' habit costs $1700 at the Tenancy Tribunal after rental left dirty

A smoker's nicotine habit has cost them dearly at the Tenancy Tribunal. Photo / File

A Southland smoker has been ordered to cough up more than $1700 after their love of cigarettes left their rental home stained with smoke.

Pride Property Management, acting as the landlord, claimed Pauline Thompson's smoking in the Gore rental and left it smelling of nicotine and made it impossible to clean the wallpaper.

They took Thompson to the Tenancy Tribunal to claim costs to clean the ceilings and put new wallpaper on the walls.

Thompson told the tribunal she had smoked inside the house, despite her rental conditions stipulating she was not allowed to do so.

However, she said this was not the reason the wallpaper was dirty and peeling off the walls.

An inspection report from four years earlier found wallpaper in the lounge and dining rooms had already been "tearing" and "lifting" when Thompson moved into the flat, the tribunal found in its ruling.

However, it also found Thompson had not made efforts to clean the home's ceilings or walls when given a 28-day notice.

This together with Thompson's deliberate breach of her rental conditions persuaded the adjudicator to award $1718 payment in damages to the landlord to assist with cleaning the ceiling and replacing the wallpaper.

"The landlord should be returned to the position they would have been in had the tenant not breached their obligations, and should not be better or worse off," the tribunal adjudicator wrote in their ruling.

"In calculating depreciation, I have considered the age and condition of the items at the start of the tenancy and their likely useful lifespan based on the evidence before me."