Good Girls Property Management fined over repeated tenancy breaches

A Christchurch company has been fined after admitting repeated tenancy breaches including unlawful termination and noncompliant properties.

The Tenancy Tribunal found Good Girls Property Management breached the Residential Tenancies Act by failing to ensure it complied with the law across 20 different tenancies.

The company was fined $5877 in exemplary damages and compensation for maintenance and repair breaches.

The tribunal also found the company broke the law by requiring an unlawful rent rise for one tenancy, adding unenforceable clauses to agreements for eight tenancies and unlawfully terminating a room-by-room tenancy.

The company's sole director Prudence Morrall has appeared on a television show about renting in New Zealand.

Photos from two of the rental properties showed rotting weatherboards and a front door with a large gap causing a cold draught.

The tribunal accepted Good Girls Property Management had identified maintenance and repair concerns with the property owners, who then delayed or refused repairs because of the cost.

Good Girls Property Management has been fined after admitting repeated tenancy breaches including unlawful termination and uncompliant properties.

The tribunal found property managers might not be protected if their client's action or inaction resulted in non-compliance or harmed a tenant.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's tenancy compliance and investigations team took the case to the tribunal.

National manager Brett Wilson said the tribunal made it clear that property managers had a clear professional obligation to ensure the rental properties they managed were compliant and to act when they knew about breaches.

Good Girls Property Management has been fined after admitting repeated tenancy breaches including unlawful termination and uncompliant properties.

"Turning a blind eye is not an option," he said.

"Property managers must take timely and appropriate action to address unlawful conduct and ensure tenants are not left to suffer the consequences."

Wilson said the fine sent a clear message to property managers that they could not simply rely on landlord clients as a defence for breaches.

"If a property owner refuses to address clear breaches of the Act, property managers should keep clear records and, if necessary, end the relationship with that client," he said.

The unlawful termination happened when the company treated the tenancy as a boarding house tenancy, which has different rights, Wilson said.

"The adjudicator said Ms Morrall 'clearly had doubts' about whether she was correct in taking the action she did and knew she should not terminate the tenancy," he said.