Failure to lodge bonds earns major penalty

MBIE’s Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT) took Bay City Rentals to the Tenancy Tribunal for its repeated failure to lodge bonds with the Tenancy Bond Centre within 23 days.

There was a delay in lodging bonds in 73 cases and the delays ranged from 31 to 701 working days, with an average of 266 working days.

Further, Bay City Rentals failed to provide insulation statements, which were compliant with regulations under the Residential Tenancies Act, in 53 cases.

In many cases, the tenancy agreement stated that insulation would be assessed later. In other cases the statement said there was compliant insulation but did not specify its type or condition to demonstrate it was sufficient to keep the property warm and dry.