Property manager and landlords fined $34,000 for bond and insulation breaches

Wednesday, 22 August 2018

Property management company Rent Centre failed to lodge tenant bonds and provide them with insulation statements.

A Whanganui property management company has been ordered to pay more than $34,000 in costs and damages for 116 breaches of the Residential Tenancies Act.

The Tenancy Tribunal found The Rent Centre Limited failed to lodge tenancy bonds and provide compliant insulation statements to its tenants, as required under the act, for more than four years.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's tenancy compliance and investigations team national manager Steve Watson said the scale and number of breaches committed by The Rent Centre was the most concerning thing about this case.

'There is no excuse for this behaviour, the company should have known better,' Watson said.

Rental properties must have ceiling and under-floor insulation installed by July next year.

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'The fact that the [investigators] had discovered 116 breaches of the [act] over a period of four years shows a massive failing in the way this business was operating.'

'Tenants need to trust and believe that when they are dealing with a landlord, particularly a property management company that has been in business for over 20 years, that the landlord is fulfilling their legal obligations.'

The tribunal awarded 115 orders of exemplary damages of $250 each, payable by landlords who failedto lodge bonds with the Tenancy Board Centre.

The Rent Centre was ordered to pay 33 fines of $100 each for failing to provide insulation statements as part of tenancy agreements.

Watson said the orders were a timely reminder for landlords to check that their properties had ceiling and under-floor insulation installed in accordance with regulations by July next year.

'Compliant insulation statements give tenants peace of mind when it comes to knowing the state of insulation in their rental home when they start a tenancy,' Watson said.

This tribunal order comes just months after Housing Minister Phil Twyford tabled a bill that would ban landlords from charging the letting fees to tenants.