Newstalk ZB
Landlord Donna Miers, who was once described as having “nefarious conduct” by a Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator, has found herself back before the tribunal. Miers and her son, Nick Hoogwerf, are no strangers to the tribunal and are currently under investigation by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for allegedly providing sub-standard rentals and failing to lodge bonds. That investigation is ongoing but Miers has now found herself back before the Tenancy Tribunal where she’s been ordered to pay a Timaru tenant nearly $8000. It comes at the same time a different tenant is meant to be receiving $5000 from Miers in $10 weekly payments but Annie Binstead says she has yet to see any of the money from her former landlord. Timaru breaches, not once but twice The most recent case relates to ongoing proceedings in the tribunal between the former tenant of a property in Timaru and Miers’ company, Okahu Limited. That tenant lived there between August 2024 and October 2025. Last year, both parties attended a hearing where the tenant claimed Miers had failed to lodge his bond and that the property didn’t meet Healthy Home Standards. He cited a lack of insulation and extractor fans in the property, gaps in the walls, windows that leaked and didn’t open and black mould growing in the home. He also said there was a loose toilet, holes in the floor and rotting weatherbards. Miers wanted the tenancy terminated, saying there was outstanding rent. An order was also made at the time awarding rent arrears to Miers, while she had to pay the tenant $3448.57 in compensation and exemplary damages. The tribunal also issued a work order, reducing the rent from $450 per week to $350 per week until Miers carried out repairs and made the home compliant with Healthy Home Standards. But, according to a new decision, that wasn’t done and the case has ended up back in the tribunal. In the latest case, the tenant again applied for compensation and exemplary damages for a number of issues, including failure to lodge his bond and the property not being up to Healthy Home Standards. Miers then applied to receive rent arrears and compensation from the tenant for alleged meth contamination and damage to the property. In a recently released decision, tribunal adjudicator Ross Armstrong said the bond still hadn’t been lodged in April, which was a “continuing breach”. “Because the landlord has already been punished once for not lodging the bond I am not minded to make an award at the upper end of the scale again. An award of $500 is appropriate,” Armstrong said. Again, she was ordered to repay the bond. There had also been no improvement of the condition of the property. Miers told the tribunal the tenant was threatening and harassing one of her contractors so she was unable to carry out improvements to the property. But Armstrong did not accept the claim. “I did not find the landlord to be a reliable witness. She was vague in her recollection of some events, possibly due to a concussion that she said she had suffered. Donna Miers and her son, Nick Hoogwerf, are no strangers to the Tenancy Tribunal. Photo / Facebook “I found some of her evidence in relation to her claims to lack credibility and her claims were not well supported by evidence. “The landlord’s attitude generally, exemplified by her failure to lodge the bond after being ordered to do so, suggests a disregard for her obligations which is consistent with a failure to make any real effort to comply with the work order.” Armstrong awarded the tenant $1500 in exemplary damages and Miers was ordered to pay $1000 for breaching the work order. The tenant was given a termination notice by Miers to end the tenancy on October 9, 2025, which the tenant claims was retaliatory as she served the notice immediately after the first tribunal order was awarded. “The timing is striking and the inference [is] that it was the order, and the overall success of the tenant’s application, that motivated the no...
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