Stafford House Evades the Residential Tenancy Act: Payout of $4800 Ordered

A past resident of Stafford House has been awarded $4800 in compensation and damages by the Tenancy Tribunal, in a ruling combining eight different breaches of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (RTA). 

The resident lived at Stafford House from February to November 2022, during his first year at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, in accommodation he described as “disgusting”. 

Stafford House is operated by UniLodge, who operated under agreement with VUW as a Hall of Residence until 31 December 2021, at which time they became liable to the RTA. Stafford House made no changes to their apartments or residence agreement to become RTA compliant, and continued to claim exemption from the RTA in the Student Hall Handbook. 

The resident said Stafford House was “sketchy from the beginning”, stating the residence agreement “looked like they wrote it with Microsoft Word”. 

Stafford House’s breaches of the RTA include: requiring $340 of non-refundable key money and letting fees, requiring rent up to ten weeks in advance (above the maximum threshold of two weeks rent under the RTA), taking over two months to lodge the tenant’s bond (the legal requirement is in 23 working days), mouldy rooms with dirty conditions, failing to provide a working fridge, stove, and oven, unlawful entry by the landlord, and contracting to evade the RTA. 

Under the RTA, landlords must give at least 48 hours notice of unlawful entry. The resident was given two hours notice prior to the landlord abruptly entering his room. “He kept looking around my room like I wasn't there. [It was] terrifying.” 

Stafford House made headlines last year after failing to provide facilities to ‘boil and bake’ in their accommodations, and in this most recent ruling, the breaches also included a faulty fridge. The resident’s fridge failed on four different occasions and took months to replace, despite multiple attempts at bringing the issue to hall management. 

“If I knew [the fridge had overheated] I would have left the door open and heated the place up because we didn't have a heater,” he said. 

The Tenancy Tribunal process has been “horrendous”, he said. “It's been tiring, and even though they've denied it, they've tried to evade the law.” UniLodge has appealed the decision of the Tenancy Tribunal, and a date for an appeal hearing has not yet been set. 

UniLodge refused to provide comment to Salient, but did say that their rooms, which cost $319 a week, are “good value for students in the current market”. 

“They didn’t understand the seriousness of their breaches,” says VUWSA CEO Matt Tucker, citing an investigation by MBIE in 2022 which found Stafford House to be in breach of six sections of the RTA. 

The recent Tenancy Tribunal ruling means that “potentially, other students living at Stafford House in 2022 or now might have a case,” said Erica Schouten, student advocate with VUWSA.

Students experiencing tenancy problems can go Aratohu Tenant Advocacy or contact VUWSA for advice and support.