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Jim Rice/Stuff
A Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator has declined a bid to terminate a tenancy after finding a Timaru landlord’s notification did not comply with the terms of the Residential Tenancies Act. (File photo)
A landlord’s attempt to terminate a tenancy because of repeated “antisocial behaviour” at the address has failed because the notices of the allegations were incorrectly filed.
The landlords (J M Clough and V M McAuley) based their application to the Tenancy Tribunal for termination on allegations that the tenant, Joseph Gerald O’Loughlin, engaged in antisocial behaviour at the Douglas St, Timaru, address on three occasions in May 2023; the 13th, 19th and 31st.
“The landlord issued three notices outlining the three instances of alleged antisocial behaviour, but it issued all three at the same time, on June 3, 2023,” tribunal adjudicator R Merrett’s ruling said.
Merrett said the Residential Tenancies Act provided that the tribunal must make an order terminating the tenancy if it was satisfied that on three separate occasions within a 90-day period, the tenant or other person at the premises with the tenant’s permission, engaged in antisocial behaviour in connection with the tenancy, and on each of those three separate occasions the landlord had given the tenant a written notice that contained the information set out in the Act.
The ruling also said the Act provided that the tribunal must not make the order if it was satisfied that doing so would be unfair because of the circumstances in which the behaviour occurred or the notices were given.
“In my view … the Act requires the landlord to issue each of the notices on three separate occasions.
“The obvious rationale is to give the tenant the opportunity to modify his or her behaviour after receiving the first or second warning notice, so as to avoid the possibility of their tenancy being terminated.
“I am therefore not satisfied that the landlord has complied with the requirements … of the Act.
“Even if I am wrong on that point, I consider … it would be unfair to terminate the tenancy because of the way in which the notices were issued,” Merrett said, dismissing the termination application.
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