Oakland landlord fined nearly $15,000 for failing to pay security deposits and insulate properties

An Auckland landlord was ordered by the Tenancy Tribunal to pay $14,700 in compensation for failing to pay a security deposit to a tenant.
photo: 123 RF

An Auckland landlord must pay $14,700 after being found by the Tenancy Tribunal to have failed to post security deposits to tenants and to have engaged in prohibited transactions.

The Tenancy Tribunal found Rebecca Jane Allcock guilty of breaching the law by failing to provide required insulation and insurance declarations in five different tenancy agreements.

Allcock is a director and shareholder of Mirror Jellies Ltd, formerly known as Find A Space Ltd, trading as Find A Space.

The tribunal noted that Allcock’s business model was that she first signed a tenancy agreement to rent out the property and then sublet it to tenants on a room-by-room basis.

“The landlord did not reside at any of the properties,” the tribunal said.

In February 2022, a compliance officer from the Department of Rental Services began an audit of Allcock and launched an investigation into several of her properties.

Alcock told the Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT) that she did not admit she was the landlord because the tenants were in a co-tenant relationship.

The tribunal said Allcock claimed her business was “too boutique” for her to count as a landlord and she should not be penalised for a “misunderstanding” of jurisdiction.

Tribunal adjudicator Hannah Cheesman ruled that Alcock did commit 15 offences.

“The landlord admitted that she had not deposited the security deposit with the security deposit center,” Cheeseman said.

“It is clear that the landlord’s breaches of the insulation declaration and insurance declaration requirements, the breaches of failing to submit a security deposit and the breaches in relation to prohibited transactions were intentional.”

Cheeseman said it was in the public interest to hold landlords to account and ensure safeguards in the legislation to protect tenants were upheld.

“Tenants are inherently in a weaker position than landlords when entering into a lease agreement.

“Housing is a basic need and rent often accounts for a large portion of household expenditure”.

Cheeseman said being a landlord was a “business” and business operators had an obligation to know the law and comply with it.

Alcock was also issued a three-year restraining order to stop her committing further offences.