Tenants win case against landlord
A Queenstown couple has won $620 compensation from a landlord they say made their lives hell.
Ferris Fairbairn, 25, and his girlfriend took landlord Stuart Higgin to the Tenancy Tribunal – and won – after Higgin tried to kick them out with 24-hours notice, following months of conflict.
In a written decision the tribunal adjudicator Maxine Knowler said Higgin’s behaviour was ‘‘very poor’’.
It included turning up at the Thompson St property unannounced, ‘‘acting in a threatening manner toward the tenants, contacting one of the tenants employers as a threat and issuing notices to terminate the tenancy which were unlawful given it was a fixed term tenancy,’’ the decision said.
Knowler said the parties had signed a standard residential tenancy agreement. It was clear the landlord believed the arrangement was a boarding house arrangement, allowing him to enter the premises without notice.
However, she was satisfied that the arrangement was that of a regular residential tenancy and the landlord had breached the tenants’ rights by entering the premises without proper notice, breaching their right to peaceful enjoy- ment of the premises and issuing them with improper notice to terminate the tenancy.
Fairbairn wanted to warn others about Higgin’s behaviour, and highlight the plight of Queenstown tenants after claims ’’slumlords’’ were taking advantage of the town’s accommodation crisis.
‘‘It’s not about the money paid to us .... $620 isn’t much of a dent to stop him from doing it again,’’ he said.
Fairbairn said the couple was paying $260 for a room and six other tenants paid $200 for single rooms in separate agreements with the landlord.
Higgin said it was Fairbairn who was the ‘‘complete nightmare’’ by stopping him from entering the premises without notice.
He maintained the property was a boarding house. ’’I’m allowed to enter the property when I need to,’’ he said.
Higgin said the tribunal decision was ‘‘completely wrong’’ but he would pay the fine.
The tenancy agreement the couple signed was ‘‘broad brushed’’, he said.
‘‘The tenancy tribunal always comes down to the side of tenant no matter what. I’ve done my best to give people a nice place to live. I hardly went into the house,’’ he said.
Fairbairn said the ’’turning point’’ was when Higgin gave the couple 24 hours to leave the property, when they had a month left on the tenancy.
‘‘He can’t just give us a 24-hour notice unless he has [proof] of us physically destroying the place, which we clearly weren’t doing,’’ he said.
Fairbairn said a day later, Higgin returned with two men who behaved threateningly.
Fairbairn lodged a formal complaint with police at the time.
The men asked the couple about their residency status, and claimed they could get them fired and find out where they would live next, Fairbairn said.
One of the men filmed Fairbairn during the conversation.
‘‘He was a lot more calm this time because his mates were there, but I think we was trying to get us to snap,’’ said Fairbairn, who asked his flatmates to film as well.
Fairbairn said people were ‘‘desperate’’ for rentals in Queenstown, so people ‘‘take what they can get’’.
The couple now had a lease for a ‘‘nice and warm’’ house where they felt calm.
‘‘It’s the first time I found a place to call home in Queenstown, which is hard to find,’’ he said.