Accessible News

Top storiesNew ZealandPoliticsBusinessEntertainmentSportsWorld

Cutting remarks: State housing tenant faces $1100 lawn mowing bill

Tuesday, 5 August 2025

A Cambridge state house resident has been told they may have to cough up $1100 to get their lawn mowed.
A Cambridge state house resident has been told they may have to cough up $1100 to get their lawn mowed.

Mow the lawn or cough up $1100 “immediately”.

That’s the choice put before a Cambridge Kāinga Ora tenant after the state housing agency took them to the Tenancy Tribunal, claiming the tenant “has failed to keep the lawns in a tidy condition”.

The $1100 lawn cut cost is the latest Tenancy Tribunal ruling the Waikato Times has highlighted, a series that has included a dog dilemma and allegations of guns being fired and threats to kill.

The Tribunal gave the tenant two options.

“Mow the lawns and maintain the lawns” was option one.

A Cambridge state house resident has been told they may have to cough up $1100 to get their lawn mowed.
A Cambridge state house resident has been told they may have to cough up $1100 to get their lawn mowed.

“As an alternative … the tenant must pay the landlord $1100 immediately,” the ruling said.

“If the tenant fails to comply with either Order 1 or 2, then the landlord may undertake the work and charge the tenant the costs of this work up to $1100.

“These costs may be treated as rent in arrears and enforced accordingly.”

The state housing agency has been told it can pay for the lawns to be mowed, and bill the tenant $1100.
The state housing agency has been told it can pay for the lawns to be mowed, and bill the tenant $1100.

The Tribunal report notes that while both the landlord and tenant attended the hearing, “the tenant disconnected the phone call during the hearing”.

Kāinga Ora maintained that the tenant “had not maintained the lawns”, and under the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, “a tenant has specific obligations in relation to the tenancy premises”.

The Tribunal said that if it finds a tenant has failed to comply with those obligations, “it may make an order for the landlord to carry out the work”.

“If the work order is not being made by consent of both parties, the Tribunal must also make a monetary order as an alternative to compliance with the work order,” the ruling said.

“A work order may also authorise the landlord to undertake the work and charge the tenant the costs of doing the work, if the tenant should fail to comply with the work order and alternative monetary order.”

The report also noted the Tribunal had been provided photographs “of the over grown grass throughout the property”.

“Because the overgrown grass is fairly extensive, the landlord has submitted it should cost approximately $1100 to initially cut the lawn. I accept this is the amount given the photographs and the lawn area.”