Tenant Damages Rental Property
Malicious Damage By Tenant – August 2017
Background
Baxter owned a rental property in Whangamata and employed a property manager to manage the tenancy and inspections. Baxter had model tenants, the property was always kept in good condition, the lawns mowed regularly and rent payments were never missed. Then, in March 2018 the tenant failed to pay rent for two weeks in a row. The property manager went to the house and discovered that the tenant had vacated, possibly weeks earlier and had left behind a mess of rubbish, possessions and a very dirty house, with numerous areas of damage.
Claim Process
Baxter logged into his dashboard on the Initio website to tell them about his damaged house. Because Baxter wasn’t based in Whangamata, he advised Initio that the property manager was the best person to liaise with.
Initio appointed a loss adjuster to the claim, who went to the property, took photographs and obtained quotes to repair the damage. Thankfully the property manager had completed a written and photographed inspection of the property just one month prior to discovering the damage, so the loss adjuster was easily able to differentiate between existing and new damage.
The damage to Baxter’s property was two-fold, the claimable and non-claimable.
Claimable damage:
- Graffiti on walls in lounge / dining / kitchen area – It was likely that the graffiti was all completed at the same time, so one excess applied to this event.
- Numerous holes in walls in the kitchen / dining / lounge area – These areas were going to be re-painted due to the graffiti, so the holes were repaired at the same time. No additional excess was applied to this event.
- Large tear in the carpet in the lounge / dining / kitchen open plan area – This was one open plan room and so the carpet to the doorway of the room was covered. Another excess was applied as this was unrelated to the graffiti.
- Cracked vanity top – The only way to remedy this was to replace the entire vanity, which involved re-tiling around it. A further excess was applied to this one-off event.
- Loss of rent – The claimable damages would take approximately three weeks to repair, so Initio paid the lost rental income for this period. No additional excess is charged for loss of rent.
Non-claimable damage:
- Rubbish removal, general cleaning, lawn mowing – Whilst there was a cost associated with these issues, they were not caused by a sudden and accidental event, so there was no cover.
- Random one-off holes in walls throughout 3 bedrooms – It was not possible to confirm that the holes all occurred in the same sudden event and so an excess would have been charged per hole and therefore there was no point in claiming.
- Missing and damaged curtains throughout – As confirmed by the tenancy inspections, the curtains had been removed and damaged at various times throughout the tenancy, so an excess was to apply per curtain which made them un-claimable.
Outcome
Initio deducted 3 x $400 excesses from the repair estimate of $6,500 and cash settled Baxter $5,300 directly to his nominated bank account.
