Tales from the Tenancy Tribunal: Landlords behaving badly

Wednesday, 8 January 2025

Shirley Anne Sharp ran a lodge at 107 Blockhouse Bay that consisted of a converted family home and several unconsented cabins.

There is no question that cases through the Tenancy Tribunal often involve badly behaving tenants - those that don’t pay their rents, leave the property in a state, or actively create damage to the property.

But there are also landlords that go so far above and beyond what they should be doing that their cases evince a morbid kind of fascination.

An infamous one from the Tribunal in 2024 was the case of Shirley Anne Sharp, who was ordered to pay rent and bond refunds and exemplary damages of $69,563.10 to MBIE on behalf of four tenants of her Blockhouse Bay property who brought complaints against her.

Sharp was also hit with a 3-year restraining order by the Tenancy Tribunal to prevent future breaches of the Act from occurring if she was to act as a landlord in the future.

The case was serious enough to have been adopted by MBIE’s Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT). The team found multiple issues, including mould, a rotten deck and weatherboards, holes in the wall and floor, an inoperative bathroom, plugs and light fittings hanging from the wall and a heater and oven that did not work as well as issues with non-lodgement of bonds, insulation and lack of smoke alarms.

More of Shirley Anne Sharp’s cabins - she was fined almost $70k for her breaches of the Residential Tenancies Act.

The Tenancy Tribunal, for its part, noted the boarding house had become “rundown, decrepit and unsafe, and the tenants in this case were particularly vulnerable due to the fear of becoming homeless.”

The conclusion was the buildings were “dangerous, insanitary and not fit for humans to live in.”

The property has since been demolished.

A Rotorua landlord, Stephen Bhana, was another who found himself falling foul of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 and ordered to pay $12,000 to MBIE on behalf of multiple tenants.

Leaks, hole in wall and unannounced visits cost landlord.

Again, MBIE’s Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team had been wheeled out to investigate Bhana’s two-bedroom property, finding it to have a badly leaking roof, cracked and broken gutters, holes in the flooring, rotten timber in the window frames, and external soffit and eaves.

The landlord had paid no mind at all, seemingly, to basic healthy homes requirements, and tenants were living with a non-functioning heat pump, uncovered open fireplace, draughts, and no ground moisture barrier or drainage. Worse was that the property was initially rented by a young couple expecting their first child, who felt compelled to move out, after which Bjana bumped the rent up $100 to let it to a mother with two young children to $750 a week “despite not adequately completing any maintenance or repairs.

As a result of water dripping through a damaged ceiling, the tenants were unable to use the front bedroom, and all had to sleep in the lounge at one point, while the children’s health took a hit, particularly the eldest, who had bronchitis.

Bhana had form in renting homes of dubious properties: “The seriousness of the issues identified at this property and the history of non-compliance associated with the landlord meant it was in the public interest to take this case to the tribunal to hold Mr Bhana accountable,” MBIE said.

Plants growing through the floor at Kit’s Beachhaven property.

Bhana had to pay $12,000 in rent overpayments, exemplary damages and other penalties and was restrained from committing further unlawful acts of the same kind for a period of 3 years.

More evidence of the state of Kit’s Beachhaven property.

Bhana applied for the case to be reheard.

A slightly less serious case was levelled against landlord Leng Minn Kit, who had to pay $4,168.21 to MBIE on behalf of tenants and restrained for 3 years from failing to provide a completed and accurate tenancy agreement, failing to comply with any improvement notice issued by MCIE, and failing to ensure that a premise is weathertight.

Kit and his Beachhaven properties had repeatedly come to the attention of MBIE’s Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT) from 2019 onwards, and in 2023 when a proper investigation of his two properties (one a converted garage) was undertaken, a range of problems were identified, including mould and damp, moisture in the perimeter walls in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, moisture, a lack of ventilation and mould in the rood, rusted and rotting cladding, weeds and bamboo growing through the floor, among many other things.

As a result of being “not weathertight, nor draught proof, does not have compliant extractor fans and does not have adequate drainage” was in breach of the Healthy Homes standards and the over $4000 order was made.

Perhaps helping Kit’s case was the fact he was only charging a nominal rent for the converted garage - $240 a week which was reduced by the ruling - and appeared to get on well with the tenants, even while things like the non-stop drip from an unfixed shower was identified as a mental health risk to them, as well as the general physical health risk posed by the property.