Toilet leak compo bid fails
Renters wanted $50,000, claiming illness and damage to devices, designer clothes
Unhappy tenants have tried to claim more than $50,000 in compensation from their landlord, saying a toilet leak destroyed designer clothes and branded devices and left one renter in a toxic shock “coma”.
Tenants Ximing Yang and Xiao Pan took their case to the Tenancy Tribunal saying their landlord failed to meet the healthy homes standard after the seal on their toilet burst and flooded their central Auckland unit with human waste and greywater.
They say the leak in June last year exposed them to “deadly diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid” and they were left out of pocket after having to throw out $21,370 worth of contaminated items — including clothing, underwear, shoes, a rug, silk pillowcases and beds.
Some of the items “contaminated” by the human waste were from designer brands such as Gucci, Chanel and Burberry, as well as an iphone max-pro, Airpods and a Macbook pro.
The rest of the $53,588 claim related to compensation for a long list of things including “psychology consultations”, medical treatment, legal consultation, preparation costs for the hearing, translation services, catch-up French lessons and eating out because of the smell.
However, tribunal adjudicator Jane Northwood threw out most of the couple’s claims, saying the extensive list wasn’t supported by sufficient evidence and that the landlord made a concerted and prompt effort to fix the problem.
The toilet started leaking on June 25, causing sewage and wastewater to travel through the bathroom, into the corridor and two upstairs bedrooms. The tenants said sewage was up to 20mm high and destroyed personal property that was on the floors of the bedrooms.
They said they tried to contact the landlord that day but failed, so they cleaned up the initial mess and disposed of the damaged property.
Another email was sent to the landlord two days later saying the toilet was leaking.
After receiving the email the next morning, the landlord organised an urgent repair for the following day.
A plumber found a faulty seal at the base of the toilet but the landlord said this was not an ongoing issue and had the toilet not been blocked by the tenants it would not have leaked.
Industrial cleaners were sent in to decontaminate the property on June 29. After complaints the smell still lingered, more decontamination work was done in early July.
The claims for compensation for the contaminated items were declined by Northwood, but the tenants were credited $1250 as a rent rebate.
One of the tenants claimed he had been in a “coma” due to toxic shock from the toilet leak, despite receiving no medical intervention or support.
The tenants also claimed to have suffered from high blood pressure, chest pains, sleep disturbances and stress due to the leak.
However, Northwood declined compensation for those claims as well.
Yang and Pan were instead ordered to pay $6173 to their landlord for rent arrears, cleaning and water rates.