An Auckland boarding house landlord has been ordered to pay $44,450 in exemplary damages after leaving 20 tenants in cold rooms and ignoring official orders to fix the property.
Beach Road Properties Limited admitted to multiple breaches of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 following a Tenancy Tribunal case brought by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
The property at 113 Beach Road in central Auckland, known by tenants as the "Beach Road Hostel", was inspected as part of a nationwide initiative targeting boarding houses after the fatal Loafers Lodge fire in 2023.
Investigators from MBIE's Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT) found a range of issues at the hostel, including a lack of suitable heaters. The landlord ignored a subsequent improvement notice to rectify the problems and repeatedly failed to provide requested documents to officials.
At a Tenancy Tribunal mediation, the landlord accepted it had committed multiple unlawful acts. These included failing to install working heaters, charging bond amounts that exceeded the legal limit of one week's rent, and failing to lodge those bonds with Tenancy Services.
