Vile abuse leads to big compensation awards
The large exemplary damages and compensation awards were for harassment, upsetting the tenant’s quiet enjoyment of the property as well as failing to provide insulation, insurance, healthy homes and rent statements.
It is the second time in a year landlord Rebecca MacPherson Anderson had been ordered by the tribunal to pay exemplary damages for harassment. The previous case involved two tenants of another rental she owned. In that decision the adjudicator described two “nasty, intimidating and oppressive” incidents as “brief but serious and having an ongoing effect on the tenants.”
MacPherson Anderson’s only defence to the recent case was everything said was “all lies” and the tenant had arranged for another person to impersonate her and that person entered into the tenancy agreement, not the tenant in front of the tribunal. She says she would never have agreed to having a person like [the tenant] as a tenant, referring to her appearance, in particular, her tattoos.
Tribunal adjudicator R Merrett rejected MacPherson Anderson’s defense in its entirety. “The tenant signed the tenancy agreement as did MacPherson Anderson and the tenant confirmed the signature was hers.”
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