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Question Details: We have been through the Tenancy Tribunal with the landlord and the landlord has been paid the money owed out of our bond. Now the issue is between the tenants. One flatmate stopped paying rent last year and owes us all for what had to come out of our bond. How do we go about reclaiming this? The Tenancy Tribunal seems unhelpful unless it is landlord/tenant issues, not tenant/tenant. Could this claim be sorted out through the Disputes Tribunal instead?
Filed under Tenancy | 2388 View(s)
Community Law Wellington & Hutt Valley
You are correct that the Tenancy Tribunal does not address issues between flatmates. You can claim through the Disputes Tribunal if your former flatmate is disputing that money is owed to you. However, the Disputes Tribunal does not deal with debt recovery cases where there isn't a dispute (such as where the person simply hasn't paid the debt). Click here: www.justice.govt.nz for more information about what the Disputes Tribunal deals with and how to make a claim.
If the debt is not disputed, you could claim for the debt in the District Court. This is a more formal and time consuming process, and is usually more expensive. You should consider the amount of the debt when you make your decision about how to proceed. For more information about the District Court process click here: www.justice.govt.nz.
If you have not already done so, you could try and negotiate with your former flatmate to pay you back over time, or come to some other arrangement about settling the debt.
Answered 28 Mar 2013. The IMPORTANT NOTICE below is part of this answer.
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