Dunedin’s rental rates are rising faster than any other university town in the country, but the quality of the homes is not exactly a sterling standard. Since people come and go every year, it can be easy for a property owner to neglect a home for years on end, always promising to do work for the next year’s tenants, and then rinsing and repeating the process. We sat in on a few Tenancy Tribunal cases to see what happens when students stand up to the status quo.
The Tenancy Tribunal is located on the first floor of the District and High Court on Lower Stuart Street, which is not a scary building, we promise. As far as going to court goes, it’s pretty casual and accessible. It only costs a crisp $20 to file for the Tribunal, and after filling out some paperwork you’re well on your way to sweet, sweet justice.
Anyone can just rock up to a random Tribunal hearing and see what’s up. If that sounds like a boring waste of time, you’d be right. But in the name of journalism, we took one for the team and went to court at 10am on a Wednesday morning.
Critic sat through two Tribunal hearings as a fly on the wall, each lasting an hour. The first ended in mediation and the second was, according to the magistrate, “very confusing”. You’re telling us. Despite being pretty dry, Critic Te Ārohi learnt some useful tips for anyone wanting to take their landlord and/or property manager into a small room with bright fluorescent lights and lay out how much of an asshole they’ve been in a court of law.
The most important thing to remember is not to interrupt the magistrate; they’re the one making the decision at the end of the day, so it’s probably not a great idea to piss them off. Also, don’t interrupt your landlord and/or property manager, no matter how much of a dick they are; both parties have an allotted time to speak before giving the other party time to ask questions and for the right of replies at the magistrate’s discretion. One student told Critic Te Ārohi, “We got told to shut up a couple of times actually because we got too passionate about it.” But then, so did their property manager.
Another important thing to remember is to bring printed copies of the evidence you want to submit (things like the signed tenancy agreement, email receipts or bank statements). It’s useful to bring three copies, one for yourself, one for the other party, and one for the magistrate. Be specific and concise; the hearing only lasts an hour and the magistrate likely has a tonne of other hearings back-to-back to get through. So get your facts straight and make sure you have a clear timeline of events complete with specific dates things happened or were said. Finally, don’t expect to get a result on the day; it typically takes a couple weeks for the magistrate to reach a decision and email the outcome.
Critic Te Ārohi sat down with a couple students to go deeper and understand what happens behind the scenes of the Tenancy Tribunal process.
Zion and his flat of six took their property manager from KITT Property Management (KITT) to the tribunal over around 20 serious issues with their flat in North East Valley last year. Things were off to a not so great start when Zion found rubbish along with a car left from the original tenants on the day he moved in. But that was only the beginning; the stove only had one working hob, the dishwasher was broken, the washing machine was broken, the dryer was broken and there was a patch of mould one metre squared in the middle of the hallway. Also, KITT is based in Christchurch (an immediate red flag). In summary, it was a “shit flat”.
After around three months, Zion issued KITT with a 14-day notice. “They're like, ‘Oh maybe we should actually do something about this,’” said Zion. So they went ahead and fixed the gutters and a couple other minor issues. Zion then submitted another 14-day notice, prioritising exactly what needed done to have a habitable flat. After three weeks of “nothing” (Critic Te Ārohi is no expert, but that sounds like over 14 days), Zion threatened to take them to Tenancy Tribunal. So KITT did what any reasonable property management company would do: they went ahead and painted the front of the house (and got a little on the tenants’ cars for good measure). This was the “final straw” for Zion.
Three months later, after doing the paperwork and paying $26 from the flat account, Zion and his flatties made it to the Tribunal. “We went to court as a flat, all dressed up,” said Zion. After laying out all the cold hard facts, “we won,” said Zion. KITT Property Management was ordered to pay $2,500 in damages and fix the broken appliances. Split 6 ways, it worked out to be $400 each in “prize money”. But Zion told Critic Te Ārohi: “Honestly, I would have paid $400 at the start to have all the stuff fixed and not have to deal with that… it's awesome but I just wanted a dishwasher working at that point.” Collectively, Zion and his girlfriend put in around 60 hours of admin - not a great hourly rate. He said that the Tribunal process “took a lot of hours, making it almost more stress than what it's worth but it’s the only legal way to get them back.” Ultimately, “don’t get into bed with something that fucks you over,” said Zion.
Liam thought their flat on Harrow Street would be demolished the day after he moved out. The flat was not compliant with the healthy homes standards at all; the heat pump was in the hallway, not a main living space, and did “fuck all”, the gutters were broken, the windows were drafty and filled with condensation, there were mushrooms growing in the hot water closet, and there was mould throughout the whole flat. The “cumulative effect of all of this made it a really bad place to live,” said Liam. “Of the five of us living there, three developed IBS which is known to have environmental triggers. But luckily for the landlords, if they have consent for the property to be demolished within 12 months, it is exempt from the healthy homes standards. So legally, they’re technically fine.” But, plot twist: Liam noticed the flat remained standing and the landlords had advertised the flat again - for this year.
Liam is prepared to take the fight to the Tenancy Tribunal and is confident of their chances. “The law is quite clear,” they said, “it really depends on those nitty-gritty details.” The property manager has already gotten two adjournments, the latest being given the day before the hearing. While this has dragged the process out, it has also given Liam more time to prepare. The property manager also asked Liam to go to private mediation to “discuss what has actually transpired and the legality of it,” indicating they want to settle outside of court. This all indicates that “they’re scared,” said Liam.
To top it off, Critic Te Ārohi sat down with Janet, current head of the Disputes Tribunal and referee for 15 years on the Tenancy Tribunal. Janet described the Tenancy Tribunal as the “front door to civil justice”. The Residential Tenancies Act requires the property to be “reasonably clean and tidy” and “reasonably maintained”. Again, we’re no expert, but it seems unlikely that many flats in North D fall within this description. Janet went as far as to say that “Castle St could be cleaned up for $20”. You heard it here first folks; if you’re flatting on Castle (or anywhere really) and have a scummy landlord that you think is taking advantage of you, take them to Tenancy Tribunal. The worst that can happen is you lose $20 which, split between all your flatties, isn’t much. Zion agreed: “If you hold people accountable they’ll stop taking advantage of you.”
Critic Te Ārohi collated someful helpful tips and tricks for students who find themselves in similar situations to Zion and Liam.
Take a look at the Residential Tenancy Act and take note of the specific relevant section numbers and specifically how your landlord or property manager has breached it.
Reach out to OUSA student support services.
Keep everything in emails; if it’s a phone call or in-person conversation with your landlord, get it in writing. You could say: “My flatmate asked what we talked about and I forgot so can you please email me a summary?”
Take photos of everything. Better yet, do a full walk around video of the flat.
It costs around $20 to apply online for Tenancy Tribunal (and you get it back if you win).
Despite the law offering numerous cushy protections for private property interests (cringe), you, as a tenant, actually have some rights. The only problem is that reading legal documents is a massive ceebs. Thankfully, Critic Te Ārohi has got your back, so here’s your one-stop-shop for renting red flags and tenancy rights; you just have to enforce them. What’s more, it only costs a crisp $20 to file for Tenancy Tribunal (and you get it back if you win).
Renters United is a national advocacy organisation that campaigns for better renters rights in Aotearoa. They were the ones behind ‘The Peoples Review of Renting’, a report which helped lead the way for the healthy homes standards. The group is entirely run by renters. Jordie, president of Renters United, told Critic Te Ārohi, “Our previous president bought a house and that automatically kicked him out of the organisation.”
The current renting situation is pretty cooked. Jordie told Critic Te Ārohi that the biggest issue is “paying for something and not getting anything in return.” Instead, what you do get is mostly negative; “it makes you sick, it is probably in a location that doesn't work for you,” and to top it all off “it's more than a third of your income,” said Jordie. Murdock said that the rent of his last flat in Ōtepoti has gone up “400%” in 20 years. As good as $4 lunch is, wages certainly haven’t gone up that much. As a result, “students are going to be renting into their thirties,” said Murdock, unless of course you’re privileged enough to have intergenerational wealth.