Zoe Eckhoff recently won a Tenancy Tribunal case, but says she was only able to do it with the help of her parents. Photo: Otago Daily Times
University students in Dunedin who come into conflict with their landlords over the filthy state of their flats - or whose bonds are withheld for no apparent reason - say the Tenancy Tribunal is not fit for purpose.
Second-year University of Otago student Zoe Eckhoff, who recently won a Tenancy Tribunal case after finding her newly leased flat in a shocking state, is one of them.
She says she was only able to do this because she had the support of her parents and was able to hire a lawyer, but other students just find the process too hard to navigate.
Now the University Vice Chancellor Grant Robertson is among those calling for change.
Eckhoff and two of her friends were looking forward to a classic Dunedin flatting experience when they inspected a flat on Queen Street last year.
There were people living there at the time and it was a bit messy, but she expected it would be cleaned up by the time they moved in just before the first semester.
But when they moved in they found plants sprouting from the gutters, curtains covered with black mould, rubbish strewn throughout the property, dirty dishes in the sink, peeling wallpaper and pots and pans outside.
The friends said it was uninhabitable, and they did not move in.
However, they were only able to get out of the lease after hiring a lawyer and going through a lengthy Tenancy Tribunal process.
Eckhoff said it took a toll on her mental health and her studies.
"I had to take time off lectures; I had to get extensions on assignments and talk to my lecturers about that a lot and course co-ordinators.
"I had to miss out on a lot of things and classic student experiences because we had to deal with this from day one, I had to miss out on some of the Re O week because we were writing up legal documents, which I think is absurd.
"I'm not a law student I didn't know how to do any of that until I went through the process."
Eckhoff said the only reason she got through it was because she had the support of her parents and had somewhere else to live in the meantime. And while the tribunal found in her and her flatmates' favour, she said the case continued to plague her as she looked for new rentals.
"The cost for these students who do go to the tribunal, is that they obviously have to tell their next landlord that they've been to the tribunal and that they've been to a tribunal hearing.
"Their landlord is probably at that point less inclined to sign for them when they know that they've been to a tribunal hearing and in a sense willing to speak up about something.
"I wonder if the fact that I've been very vocal about my tenancy issues and about tenancy issues in Dunedin is why I haven't heard back from a lot of properties."
Another student, who did not want to be named, said she was still fighting to get her bond back from her previous landlord, even though she moved out in June.
She said she was never been given a reason for her bond being withheld. Like Eckhoff, she said she only reason she had been able to initiate the Tenancy Tribunal process had been due to the support of her parents.
"I'm really thankful because my parents have helped out a lot because they've said you guys need to focus on your studies.
"I actually failed a paper last sem, because of all of this."
Other students were not so lucky. Robertson said students had told him the Tenancy Tribunal was just too hard to navigate.
"I think anyone in their lives who's rented knows that actually the Tenancy Tribunal is a difficult environment, and a lot of people give up because it's just a bit hard.
"I think there's something there that's a system issue about how do we actually make that process easier.
"I would definitely support changes that make it easier to people to have their rights upheld, that could be reform of the tribunal, it could be a change to the Act but clearly at the moment it isn't working."
Robertson said the best port of call for students looking for support in such circumstances was the Otago University Students Association, which can walk them through the Tenancy Tribunal process.
Checkpoint has contacted the landlords involved in both cases referred to in this story, but they declined to comment.
Checkpoint received a statement from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which oversees the Tenancy Tribunal.
It said a range of information and support avenues were available for tenants, including the Tenancy Services website and the MBIE Service Centre.
MBIE also provides support through its partners, the Citizens Advice Bureau and Community Law Centres.
The organisation can also accommodate mediation between landlords and tenants to help resolve problems in a less formal setting.
The statement said that MBIE regularly engaged with organisations representing landlords and tenants - including the Otago University Students Association.
MBIE encouraged tenants to speak with their landlord as soon as an issue arises so it can be resolved quicker and easier.
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