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Salient. Victoria University Students Newspaper. Volume 37, No 26. October 2, 1974

The landlords gang

The landlords gang

Early in September, Tenants' Protection Association was approached by the tenants of an Aro Street flat. They claimed that the landlord of their property had broken an agreement about payment of the electricity bill. When the tenants moved into the flat they agreed to pay a rental of $38 weekly, including all electricity and gas charged.

However the landlord was now claiming that he said he would only pay the bill up to $22 and the tenants of this one flat would have to pay the rest. The tenants pointed out that the landlord had never mentioned anything about $22 when they initially took the place, that the meter recorded the usage of three flats, and so they would be paying for all the other tenants' electricity.

TPA saw the premises and noted that they were sub-standard. The tenants were advised to file a rent appeal to refuse to pay the landlord's electricity bill and to sit tight. Meanwhile TPA contacted the City Council building inspectors and the MED and prepared to see what the landlord would do.

Things were relatively quiet for a week. But the tenant, a university student, did not want a great deal of hassle with the approach of finals, so he gave the landlord fair and proper notice that he would be vacating the flat.

On TPA advice he also told the landlord that the $60 bond the landlord was holding could be considered as part of the last fornights rent and this would mean he would only get a further $16 from the tenant. (Concerning the bond the landlord had actually breached the Rent Appeal's Act by failing to give written notice of how the bond would be returned.)

The landlord must have-been pretty enraged by the tenant's statement for his son and four goons visited the tenant at night, kicked their door and demanded entry. The landlord's gang by sheer intimidation forced the tenants to pay the two weeks rental and implied that their bond would not be returned. On the day the tenants were to quit the place the landlord again returned in the company of a little fat lady who described herself variously as a lawyer and the landlord's secretary. They warned the tenants to be out by midnight or they would be thrown out. TPA anxious to speak to the landlord about these incidents rang his home. His wife said that both her husband and her son were out, and she wasn't going to waste time talking about these "rotten" tenants.

When the landlord finally arrived at the tenants flat they were greeted by a sizeable group of the tenants friends and TPA workers. With the odds against them they grudgingly surrendered the bond.