Tenants act to recoup money

Press, 10 March 1988, Page 22

Tenants act to recoup money

Several tenants of a Christchurch landlord have banded together to take the landlord to the Tenancy Tribunal. The Housing Corporation’s Tenancy Bond Division will co-ordinate the tenants’ action.

According to the division, the landlord, Splendide Structures, may owe the tenants as much as $4OO each. A Tenancy Tribunal hearing' late last year found that the tenancy agreement the landlord used was illegal. In its decision, the tribunal said four-fifths of the initial payment taken by the landlord was “key money.” Under the Residential

Tenancies Ac , that is illegal and tie tribunal ordered the landlord to repay the money to the tenants. ' In February this year the division sent a letter to all known Splendide tenancies ) informing tenants of the decision and asking if [they wanted to take actioq to get their payments refunded. The division believed Splendide owed all its tenants about $40,000 collectively; \ Of the 100 tenants approached, iq decided to take action together, three were taking individual action, and about 15 declined to take action against Splen'dide.