An Auckland family says they had to sleep in the lounge and boil dishwashing water in a kettle because they could not contact their landlord to repair problems for almost a year.
Software developer Chris Henk, librarian Mandy Henk and their children now aged 14 and 8 paid $650 a week to rent a four-bedroom house in Mairangi Bay for a year until June 27.
But they say they were unable to contact the owner Yun Pei Hu to fix downstairs lights that blew out, a broken kitchen hot water tap, a rotten stair that broke in two, a broken toilet seat, a broken cupboard hinge, a faulty dishwasher and a "cold, damp and mouldy" atmosphere.
They have filed a claim in the Tenancy Tribunal for exemplary damages of up to $6500 plus compensation, alleging that Hu "provided either false or misleading contact information to us and then disappeared for almost a year".
Tribunal adjudicator J Day today ordered the return of their $2600 bond, but deferred the other claims because Hu had not been notified of them.
Hu did not appear either at today's hearing or at a mediation meeting called by the tribunal last month.
Hu's daughter Annie Jiang, whom the Herald found by texting her husband and a real estate agent who has just sold the property, said she was not notified about either meeting.
Mandy Henk said that was because the owner's contact details registered with Tenancy Services were a mobile phone number that did not work and the street address of the Auckland City Oaks Hotel in Hobson St.
The Henks said a rotten back stair broke within days of them moving in, exposing nails which they covered with wood.
The kitchen hot water tap began leaking in February and the plastic knob on the tap blew off in May, forcing them to boil dishwashing water in a kettle for the rest of their tenancy.
The downstairs lights blew out in April and the lower floor was also damp and mouldy, so the family started sleeping in the upstairs lounge.
Mail was often delivered for the owners, including water bills for several properties and a birth certificate for Annie Jiang's baby now seven months old. Henk said she rang the agent who rented them the house, Paul Fu, who told her to leave the mail in the mailbox and someone would collect it, but no one ever did.
Fu told the Herald today that he was only the letting agent, was not responsible for managing the property, had now left the letting company and did not know how to contact Hu.
Jiang said the Henks always had her husband's mobile number. She said she deliberately did not visit the property because she did not want to intrude on the family's privacy until she visited in April to give notice that their one-year tenancy would not be renewed.
"When they are living there one year I never come to ask the tenants to open the door because the family are living there and I wanted them to be very comfortable living there," she said.
But Mandy Henk said they could never get an answer on Jiang's husband's mobile.
"We tried it and tried it and it was never answered," she said.
Jiang said she did not repay the family's bond because of fire damage to carpet and because the house stank of dogs.
The Henks conceded that part of the carpet was burnt by sparks from a wood burner, and that they kept dogs. But they said that any damage caused was not intentional or careless.
