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How A Damp Rental Led To A $13,000 Tenancy Tribunal Payout
•Zebunisso Alimova
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Mould on the walls is bad enough, but what happens when vermin and droppings are reportedly falling from the ceiling onto kids’ beds and the rent still has to be paid? We sit down with Jessica Kelty from Strive Kind to walk through a confronting Auckland case study that wrapped up around April, where a pregnant single mum with three boys fought to prove her rental was unhealthy. The final outcome included a $13,000 payout, but the bigger story is what it took to get there and why so many tenants never reach that point.
We talk plainly about tenant rights in New Zealand, the Healthy Homes Standards, and why enforcement can feel disconnected from real life. You’ll hear why “just move out” is not practical advice in a rental shortage, especially once you factor in bond, moving costs, schooling, and the fear of a bad reference. We also dig into the power imbalance that can turn renting into a fear-based relationship, where speaking up risks retaliation, notice, or losing the roof over your head.
From there we look at the role of property managers as the layer between landlords and tenants, and what can go wrong when property management is inconsistent or poorly regulated. We also question what a Healthy Homes compliance report really means if assessors are not consistently trained or held to a clear compliance system. Our goal is not landlord bashing, it is shining a torch on the gaps so more homes are dry, safe, and liveable.
If this matters to you, share the episode with someone who rents or owns a rental, and leave a review so more New Zealanders can find these conversations. What do you think should change first?
If you listen to my episode with Jessica Kelty from Strive Kind, listen up. She's come back and she's got a case study for us today. Hello, Jessica. Hi, thanks for having me back. Thanks for coming back so soon. So, Jessica, you and I talked about that we need to be sharing more case stories with our listeners. And you had a very interesting one. Take it away.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, so this is a case study from a situation that happened up in Auckland. It actually just finished in about April this year. And it's a case of a tenant.
It's a mother, a single mum. She has three sons. She was also pregnant. She was living in a home that was really damp, had a lot of mold. There was even mice and rat droppings falling from, you know, the ceilings into her children's beds and onto their bedding and everything like that. She complained to her landlord. The landlord didn't do anything. I know at some point she had to move into the garage to actually be healthy. She had letters from her doctors saying that her home was unsafe. She had letters to say that the home was causing her children illnesses. The landlord, in the end, they had to end up going through court, they had to engage the local MP and all to all to prove that this woman's home was unhealthy. Because the onus doesn't sit with the landlord. And so in the end, the uh landlord actually paid out that tenant $13,000 because she was actually still paying rent while all that was going on as well. So this is just one one case study. There's many news articles about it that you can actually reference, but that's just one that I've been my attention's been drawn to, which it's horrific, absolutely horrific.
SPEAKER_01
Do you think, like a lot of people, they'll be hearing that story, they'll go, well, why didn't she move out to another place? But do you think because she was vulnerable, she was the one that, you know, was pregnant and single mum, and finding
another rental probably wouldn't have been easy for her.
SPEAKER_00
That's correct. And actually, when I hear people say just move out, it really grinds my gears. You sound like Christopher Luxon saying it only takes 60 bucks to do his weekly shop. It's just not in touch with reality. He you can't just move out. There's a rental shortage. You if you're you're a tenant, you're worried your landlord's going to give you a bad reference. Like you've got children, what about there's schooling? You know, there's so many aspects to to moving out than just move out. As well, who can afford it? You have to give you more bond, you have to pay for movers. It's just not an accessible choice for so many tenants. And so when I hear people say just move, I just think you're not in touch with reality.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I agree. I fully agree. Yeah. The other thing I was thinking as you were saying that story is the landlord probably knew that, and the landlord knew that they had their upper hand and advantage of having this tenant.
It's it's it's true, and the landlord is banking on the fact that that tenant is going to be too scared to take them to the tribunal. And that's what a lot of them do. It's a fear-based relationship, it's a huge power and balance. And so we yeah, we just really need to empower tenants to you know to make those complaints to the tenantry tribunal. But it's hard. Like, even as a home performance advisor, when I'm helping clients, I get nervous because it's like, what is the landlord gonna do? How are they gonna react? Am I going to push this person out of their home because we are pushing their landlord? Are they going to give them notice? It's it's scary. Yeah, you don't want them to be homeless. No, no, and I don't, I I can't obviously contribute towards that, but you know, it's it's a scary situation to be a tenant sometimes.
SPEAKER_01
Next question to you that we've covered off topic, uh, off topic, off sound. Off mic. Off mic. Around the property managers. Yes. Because sometimes there is a property manager in between,
right? The landlord may not even know about what's going on because he trusts the property manager to do their job.
SPEAKER_00
That's a hundred percent correct. I've come across multiple property managers who are not doing their jobs properly. I know of somebody who's living in a home that's literally folding up around them because it's so damp and the walls are falling down. But somehow that property manager has deemed that property to be healthy homes compliant. Yeah, it's it's sad. It's really sad.
SPEAKER_01
Again, I think the property managers, correct me if I'm wrong, it's not regulated, right? Anyone can wake up in the morning and go, I'm gonna be a property manager, don't need to do anything extra, and off they go.
SPEAKER_00
I think so. I think there's probably some, I think there is a course you can do, but good property managers do that.
SPEAKER_01
You can get um certified property managers, but apparently a lot of them don't need to be.
SPEAKER_00
Well, on that, that's the same with home performance advisors. If you are paying a healthy homes assessor to do an assessment, that assessor has not done any course.
There's nothing to say that they're qualified in drainage, there's nothing to say they're qualified in draft stopping. They have they are just somebody who knows things about homes. I've done a course, a home performance advisor course, but it's got nothing to do with compliance for the healthy home standards. So landlords are paying home assessors to assess their home, but they're not qualified to do it.
SPEAKER_01
So it's not different to them self-certifying.
SPEAKER_00
Exactly. Exactly. So when you actually get a compliance report from a healthy homes assessor, the where's the compliance? Because there is no compliance system.
SPEAKER_01
I feel like there's so many disconnected points. Like, I guess the government has great ideas, but then the implementation itself lacks um points. Yeah. So it's almost like Chat GPT put it together, and then you have to keep questioning it to get the actual information.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it's like they started it and they were like, oh, we're just gonna finish here. But it's it's just it's that there's just so much further to go.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So I guess uh back to the story that we've had is the out the takeaways for me is that there are a lot of vulnerable tenants out there. Yeah. And if they
don't know their rights and if they're too scared to exercise their rights, because there will be repercussions for them, they will lose their home, they'll have nowhere to go. And I guess this is why we ended up with so much homelessness as well, and people living in cars. Yeah. Because if they have spoken out and then the landlord kicks them out, that's true. Yeah, it's terrible. Yes, it's a conundrum. Yeah, it's a conundrum. All right. Well, I hope you're gonna bring me some more stories next time to educate our clients. And look, guys, this is not an episode of bashing landlords. I'm a landlord myself. I'm just gonna make it clear again.
This is more around educating people. And there are good landlords, there are bad landlords. There are good tenants, there are bad tenants. There are good property managers, there are bad property managers. All we're doing is just we're shedding the light, we're taking our torches out, yeah, and we're actually pointing the light towards issues that are relevant, that are current, that are, you know, at the heart of every New Zealand home right now, that we do need a better home living arrangement for people. They need to be healthier, they need to be able to feel safe. And if there's something wrong, let's just fix it. Yes. Agreed. That would be amazing. That would be amazing. All right, I'm gonna wave my magic wand and let's fix everything. Thank you so much, Esca. See you soon again. All right, bye.
