Emotional harm award to tenant after power and water cut off

A row erupted between the tenant and landlord, who have name suppression, over the fixing of a bedroom door at the Hillcrest rental.

All was going well between the tenant and landlord, who lived in her own home next door. They already knew each other and were on friendly terms, until the tenant’s partner destroyed a bedroom door and its frame during a domestic dispute at the four-bedroom house.

Mortified, the tenant decided to get the damage repaired before the landlord returned from a month-long overseas holiday. That plan went terribly wrong.

As the landlord and her husband passed the rental after returning from their holiday, they heard construction noises. They found a builder repairing the unreported damage.