The Kent Terrace branch of property management company Quinovic has been accused of attempting to rent out a property after the manager told a tenant it was "unfit for human habitation".
In the Wellington suburb of Mt Cook, 17 Hanson Street is not exactly a looker. The listing on Quinovic's site shows a weather-beaten, run down white villa, speckled with mould.
But, according to previous tenant Molly Black, the real horrors are inside.
"It's just complete trash. No heating, no insulation, holes in ceiling," she told Newshub.
"The floor is slanted, like you can put a bottle down and watch it roll to the other side of the room. There's black mould everywhere."
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According to Ms Black, her property manager visited the flat for an inspection on January 28, the day after she moved out. Upon seeing the damage to the house, he said it "wasn't fit for human habitation".
A week later, it was available for rent at $630 per week.
A Quinovic spokesperson said the property would not be leased until the damage was fixed, but the listing showed the property as available now.
When asked further questions the spokesperson said he wasn't the property manager and was reluctant to answer. The building's property manager didn't get back to Newshub.
Shortly after Newshub contacted Quinovic, the listing was deleted, and Ms Black received an email from them saying all viewings for the property had been cancelled.
Ms Black moved in to Hanson Street in January 2018. Quinovic Kent Terrace took over the property in April.
Shortly after Quinovic took over, Ms Black noticed water damage in her ceiling, right in the middle of her living room. She attempted to talk to her property manager about this, but says her complaints fell on deaf ears.
"I spent weeks emailing three different people from Quinovic, calling reception trying to get someone to talk to me."
In May, a Quinovic property manager came to look at the damage.
"He came, took pictures and left. He never came back."
Finally in November, six months after Ms Black noticed the water damage, a builder was called out to look at the damage. By this point, water was pouring through the ceiling in two separate locations, meaning Ms Black would need to use buckets to capture the rain water.
"He stuck his head in the ceiling, and said the roof was so full of holes that water was pooling in the ceiling," she explained.
"He said the roof would need replacing, and that water was everywhere, but it was only coming through those particular places because of pre-existing damage."
The builder left and Ms Black never saw him again.
"The end of the tenancy was coming up, and the damage was still there plus my bond still hadn't been filed."
On January 23, four days before Ms Black was due to move out, she took Quinovic to the Tenancy Tribunal. She won, and her landlord was ordered to pay her $1320 in damages - money she is yet to see a cent of.
On top of the damages, Ms Black's bond was not filed until January 29, two days after her tenancy was up.
She was promised a bond refund form by January 29, but received nothing until after Newshub spoke to Quinovic on Tuesday.
Ms Black says after Newshub spoke to a Quinovic spokesperson, she received "three very urgent texts and an email from [the property manager] saying that of course everything will be sorted at once."
"It looks like I may actually be getting paid."
The Kent Terrace branch of Quinovic has had 20 cases lodged against them since 2016. In comparison, the Lambton Quay branch has had one.
Newshub.
