When landlords go too far

A string of judgments where landlords harassed, bullied and in one case drove out tenants have been issued by the Tenancy Tribunal.

One landlord hounded her tenant with numerous emails, phone calls and phone messages that the Waitakere tribunal found were clearly attempts to intimidate the tenant into leaving.

"The landlord used her car to block the tenant's car leaving the property, hitting the mirror of the tenant's car and sitting on the bonnet of the car," the tribunal said.

In a short space of time, the landlord failed to give adequate notice of an inspection, moved the tenant's belongings, vacuumed the carpet and left notes for the tenant.

The tenant was so distressed and apprehensive that she felt obliged to surrender the tenancy.

She was awarded compensation of three weeks' rent and $500 exemplary damages.

Another landlord called a tenant's employer, demanding that direct debits be made from the employee's pay for rent, which was one week behind.

The Waitakere tribunal found this to be a breach of the tenant's reasonable peace and privacy, although it also warned the tenant to keep rental payments current.

A third landlord, who occasionally used a flat near rented premises, attached a meter to a water tank. The landlord wanted to measure the amount of water used by tenants. Even though he drew water from the same tank for his own use, he tried to charge the tenant the full amount for the water.

The Auckland tribunal found the tenant's water use was not excessive and ruled that the meter did not differentiate between rainwater and purchased water to supply both places.

Trish McConnell, the principal tenancy adjudicator, said the list of rulings from last year were distributed to mediators and adjudicators nationally to assist in consistency of approach.

Tenancy lawyer Scotney Williams said the selection was not representative of landlords' behaviour.

"Most landlords do a good job. This is a small smattering of those who don't and it's a disproportionate representation of landlords' general behaviour," he said.

"About 80 per cent of the cases which go to the tribunal are brought by landlords seeking rent arrears."

Andrew King, head of the Auckland Property Investors Association, said the landlords had all clearly breached the law and some of their actions were "pretty drastic" and "pretty amazing".

Angela Maynard, co-ordinator for the Tenants Protection Association Auckland, said many landlords were renting leaking Auckland apartments and expecting tenants to live in places unfit for habitation or under repair.