Diplomat gets another hearing of tenancy tiff
A European diplomat who rented a top-end harbourside house has won a rehearing of the landlords’ claim against her.
But while Eva Tvarozkova gets a new hearing, she would not waive her right to diplomatic immunity, the Wellington Tenancy Tribunal was told yesterday.
‘‘It is asserted and it is certainly not waived,’’ said lawyer Peter Cullen, acting for Tvarozkova and the European Delegation she represented in New Zealand.
Tvarozkova was sued before the tribunal over her tenancy of a $1500-a-week house on Pretoria Rd, Karaka Bay, Wellington. It was supposed to be a three-year tenancy but was abandoned after about six months.
Landlords Matthew Ryan and Rebecca Van Den Bos obtained a Tenancy Tribunal order on March 22 awarding them $14,314.27. They should also have got the $6000 bond the tenant paid.
Now, there will be another hearing in early June. Ryan says he has to keep fighting or he will get nothing.
‘‘There is a point of principle now,’’ he said.
Adjudicator Rex Woodhouse said he granted a rehearing of a tribunal order made on March 22 which was in favour of the landlords, but that was no indication what the final outcome would be.
There had been a substantial wrong because the tribunal did not know of the diplomatic immunity. It knew she worked for the European Union but not that she had immunity, Woodhouse said.
Cullen said Tvarozkova rang Tenancy Services a week before the March 22 hearing asserting that she had diplomatic immunity.
Broadcaster Sean Plunket, a schoolfriend of Ryan, was alongside them yesterday. Ryan said he had heard Tvarozkova, who was not at the hearing, now rented a $3000-a-week property.
Cullen said there was an addendum to the lease, setting out that Tvarozkova was a diplomat and the tenancy was periodic. It was not part of the agreement the landlords gave to the tribunal, he said.
But Ryan said that document was not part of the lease and the tenant sent it to the landlords separately after the tenancy agreement was signed. The tenant had provided it only to say there might be circumstances where 90 days notice would apply if she was transferred to another country, not to say she was going to hide behind the law to avoid her debt.
Ryan offered to discuss a settlement, including paying part of the debt to a housing charity, but that offer was not taken up.
The tribunal had originally ordered that the landlords were to get the $6000 bond that was paid, plus rent until the property was re-tenanted, the advertising costs of finding new tenants, and the cost of an alarm callout and battery replacement when the power went off because the bill had not been paid.
Tvarozkova did not appear at the first hearing, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not know about it until later.
It then advised the tribunal about the diplomatic immunity issue and asked for the rehearing.
At the tribunal yesterday MFAT’s lawyer Phirak Appleton, said they were not aware of any other cases involving tenancies and diplomats in NZ.
The sending state was the only one that could waive diplomatic immunity, not the individual themselves, she said.