Tenant ordered to pay $73k to landlord for damage he claims not to have caused

A trashed one-bedroom rental in Papakura that was left with human waste covering every surface of the premises has cost the tenant $73,782.20, which the Tenancy Tribunal has ordered to be paid immediately to the landlord.

The tenant, Minh Quach, denied causing the damage, claiming it was done by associates of people he had invited to live in the flat’s garage.

But the tribunal wasn’t buying that explanation.

Adjudicator M Edison said Quach knew the people he invited to live in the garage were drug-users and “it was unlikely this could have happened in a small unit without the tenant’s knowledge”.