Extra, if you want to cook

Remuera room for rent — but landlord says she’d rather not share her kitchen

Looking for a place to flat in Auckland? There’s one place up for grabs that might be just the thing — if you promise to never use the kitchen. A landlord has listed her Remuera property on Trade Me seeking a female tenant who doesn’t need to cook anything while living there. If the tenant wishes to be able to use the kitchen, the rent goes up.

The five-bedroom, threebathroom flat already has other tenants.

The listing offers a room and bathroom for $195, plus power. For a tenant who wants to be able to use the kitchen, the rent is $310 plus costs.

“I’m just quite clean, I don’t want people to use my kitchen,” said the landlord, who did not want to be named.

That was the only reason for the rule, she said, and it was just “personal preference”.

She has had tenants sharing her property in the past who have not minded the no-cooking rule.

“They don’t cook. A lot of people, they don’t cook. They just eat out and

They don’t cook. A lot of people, they don’t cook. They just eat out and come back home. It’s their choice.

come back home. It’s their choice.”

Tenants who decided to agree to the no-cook rule “fully understand” the deal before they rent the place.

She did not believe it was unfair, and said she’d had “lots of inquiries” from people who would suit such a lifestyle.

Tenants’ Protection Association (Auckland) co-ordinator Angela Maynard said in situations where the landlord was living in a house and getting flatmates in, the Residential Tenancies Act did not apply.

Maynard said if the landlord or a head tenant wanted to have flatmates in and make an agreement they couldn’t use the kitchen, then there was nothing to stop them doing that.

She had not heard of any other incidences of tenancies being offered without the use of a kitchen.