Tenant blames criminal corruption laws for blocking his rent money

A tenant has tried to blame laws designed to stop corrupt criminals overseas for preventing him from paying rent on time.

A tribunal slugged the British tenant more than $15,000 in compensation after finding in favour of the New Zealand landlord, who applied to have him kicked out.

The landlord approached the New Zealand Tenancy Tribunal for a lease termination, under rules that provide this avenue if a tenant is more than 21 days in arrears on payments.

The tenant, who was previously living in Britain and moved his family back to NZ, told the tribunal that the “funds to pay the rent” on the Queenstown home were blocked due to criminal activity regulation in the UK.

He claimed he was behind on his rent – by 21 days at the time of the hearing – due to the country’s “anti-money laundering regime”.

However, no evidence of this was provided to the tribunal or the landlord, the published decision said.

The tenant was ordered to pay the landlord $16,730.14 ($AU15065), of which $16,285.71 ($AU14665) was for rent arrears. The balance was for electricity and tribunal filing fees.

The tenant applied to have his name suppressed but that was rejected by adjudicator Scott Young, who said in his decision that public interest outweighed the man’s individual interest in anonymity.

However, Nine has elected not to publish his or the landlord’s names and particulars.

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