Landlord to pay $1450 for flat tours

A Nelson landlord who illegally entered his tenant’s house twice with potential new tenants when she was away has been ordered to pay her $1450.

Ana Dorrington produced video evidence of her landlord, Steven Scullion, entering the house with the potential new tenants.

Dorrington said she had not given Scullion permission to enter, and found the intrusions upsetting.

The Tenancy Tribunal said what made the breaches even more disturbing for her was that she had confidential information that was at risk of being compromised.

Under the Residential Tenancies Act a landlord can enter without permission only if there is an emergency.

Although Scullion claimed he had verbal permission from Dorrington to conduct such tours, his behaviour and that of others in the video was consistent with that of people operating without consent of entry, the tribunal found.

Dorrington said she was also often disturbed by loud noises made by Scullion’s Airbnb tenants above her.

Although she failed to prove this to the tribunal, she was granted some compensation for ‘‘deprived living conditions’’.

Dorrington appeared to have a ‘‘heightened sensitivity to surrounding noise’’, the authority said.

But it was satisfied that she experienced some deprived living conditions during the tenancy that the landlord could have avoided.

Scullion has been ordered to pay her $800 in exemplary damages for entry without consent, $630 as compensation for disrupting her quiet enjoyment and $20 in filing fees.