Tenant illegally rented an Auckland CBD apartment on Airbnb and was ordered to pay $ 12,500

A tenant was forced to pay more than $ 12,000 after illegally renting an apartment on Airbnb.

The Leasing Court found that the tenant, Sean Robin Kennedy, had rented the apartment in the Metropolis building in central Auckland on the pretext of using it for his company’s staff and clients.

But instead, he rented the apartment and others on Airbnb, Booking.com, and other accommodation websites, then sold the leases to a third party.

The court ruling said Kennedy told the landlord he was interested in the apartment for staff who periodically travel from Asia.

However, the apartment owners, the Ray Miller Trust, were never asked about subleasing and did not give their approval for the facilities to be used in this way.

After Kennedy ended the lease in April, the landlord had suspicions that the apartment had been sublet and asked the building manager to contact other apartment owners.

The owner then spoke with another apartment owner, Brett Gordon, who said in an affidavit that Kennedy had sold him a business that consisted of multiple apartment leases, including the apartment in the Metropolis building.

After paying the leases, Kennedy retained the lease, refused to give details to the landlord, and did not fill out the “change of tenant” forms.

“During the following months, I realized that I had been sold a fraudulent business,
and none of the apartment rentals were able to sublet, “Gordon said in his statement.

“The owners had no idea what was happening. Mr. Kennedy had signed leases in his own name and pretended to be living in these apartments or told the owners that his staff were using the apartments.”

Gordon said he stopped paying rent to landlords and returned all properties to Kennedy.

Gordon said Kennedy had subleased the Metropolis apartment for more than a year. He had advertised it online without an apartment number to avoid paying additional fees to Auckland City Council and to avoid the owner’s suspicions.

The landlord claimed all of the $ 8,360 Gordon paid to Kennedy for the lease and other costs. The court agreed and also awarded $ 800 in exemplary damages because the tenant had committed an illegal act.

“The landlord told me that this event had shaken his trust and confidence in his tenants, they felt cheated,” said awardee Tony Prowse.

Kennedy was also ordered to pay $ 1,700 in unpaid rent and $ 1,500 for missing items and property damage.