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Catherine Reiss / things
The Metropolis Residences building is one of Auckland’s iconic high-rise buildings.
A man who secretly subleases an apartment in Auckland’s luxurious Metropolis Residences through Airbnb must pay $ 12,500 in compensation to the owner.
The Leasing Court ordered Sean Robin Kennedy to pay owners Bernadine Charlotte Harris, Raymond John Miller, Ray Miller Trustee Limited, and Robert Burnes Trustee (2016) Limited $ 10,140.37.
Court arbitrator T Prowse also ordered the Bond Center to post Kennedy’s $ 2,360 bond to the owners.
Compensation was for unpaid rent, missing or broken furniture and bedding, cleaning costs, steam cleaning of upholstery, insurance excess for carpet replacement, and exemplary damage because the tenant will sublet the property using Airbnb without permission. from the owner.
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The lease ended on April 14 after the tenant notified it, but on April 30, the landlord told him that the building management suspected the apartment had been rented on Airbnb and Booking.com.
The owners asked the building managers to ask the owners of the other apartments to contact them if they knew anything.
“In response to them, another apartment owner, who had since sold his apartment, called them on the phone and told them that Mr. Kennedy had rented his apartment and they found out that he had rented it on Airbnb and Booking.com without your permission, “Prowse ruled. .
They also gave the owner the contact details for a man named Brett Gordon.
Gordon provided the court with a signed statement saying that he had purchased a Kennedy “business” based on renting apartments on Airbnb and Booking.com. At the time of the purchase, Gordon believed that the apartment leases allowed them to sublet at short-term accommodation sites.
“The owners had no idea what was happening,” Gordon’s statement told the court.
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Gordon’s statement read: “Mr. Kennedy had signed leases in his own name and pretended to be living in these apartments or had told the owners that his staff were using the apartments. When I discovered these problems, I stopped paying the rent to the owners and returned all the apartments to Mr. Kennedy. “
Prowse ruled that the tenant violated the lease due to the sublease and ordered $ 8,360 in compensation as part of the general award to the owners.
“Possession and control over who takes possession of a property is the cornerstone of the relationship between the owner and the tenant,” he ruled.
“It is in the public interest that when a tenant separates from possession of the property with the intention and without the permission of the landlord, exemplary damages be awarded that reflect the gravity of the situation.”
Sharon Cullwick, Executive Director of the New Zealand Property Investors Federation, advised homeowners to take non-intrusive steps to monitor their properties during leases for signs of unauthorized subletting.
Supplied
Sharon Cullwick, CEO of the New Zealand Federation of Real Estate Investors, advises homeowners to befriend their property neighbors to find out if something suspicious is going on.
The owners’ insurers required regular inspections, which could be used to look for signs of subletting on short-term accommodation websites, such as luggage stands in apartments.
“It may be that there are suitcases or no one is on the property at the time of the inspection,” he said.
As the owner, Cullwick made it a point to give the residents of her properties her business card and encourage them to contact her if they have any concerns.
“So you have someone on the ground when something is happening,” he said.
