The dog ate my insulation: Palmerston North tenant fined after pet dog damages rental

A Palmerston North dog appears to have been snacking on the insulation at the rental home where it lived. Photo / File

While dogs have been known to eat homework, a Palmerston North dog has gone one step further by tearing the insulation out from its rental home.

The furry tenant spent so long chewing away that the entire underfloor insulation at its rental had to be replaced, a Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator said in a recent decision.

The adjudicator subsequently awarded landlord B&S Clover Holdings close to $1500 to cover the cost of replacing the insulation.

"The entire underfloor insulation needed to be replaced, that is 20 square metres
of insulation," the adjudicator said.

"20sq m is a reasonably large area and likely would have taken the dog quite some time to destroy."

The adjudicator said the landlord provided evidence that Sara Abbott's tenancy agreement required her to tie her dog up when keeping it outside and that she also used the space under the house to store rubbish.

"The tenant therefore regularly went under the house and if the damage occurred over a space of time, must have been aware it was occurring," the adjudicator said.

"By not tying up the dog subsequently, the tenant allowed the damage to continue."

"From when the tenant became aware of the dog damaging the insulation, any further time that the dog was not restrained made it a virtual certainty that the damage would occur again."

This led the adjudicator to determine the damage had been intentionally caused.

Abbott didn't attend the hearing to tell her side of the story.

But the landlord provided "written proof of the tenant accepting the damage, and liability for the damage".

In total, Abbott was ordered to pay $2268 to the landlord after also being charged the cost of cleaning the rental.