A landlord at the centre of a protracted legal battle with the Queenstown Lakes District Council has been ordered to pay back $4150 to five former tenants of her Wanaka Gym Ltd household.
Fiona Graham was ordered by the New Zealand Tenancy Tribunal to make the payments after a Dunedin hearing in December.
Another former tenant, English traveller Andrew Sagar, told the Otago Daily Times he has been trying to recover a $450 bond from Ms Graham since November.
Mr Sagar was evicted from the Wanaka Gym along with 18 of his flatmates, after the QLDC gained a court injunction over the property to stop it being used for residential purposes.
Ms Graham has told him he will get his money back and has blamed her delay in paying on the actions of the council, he said.
Ms Graham is the director of a company called Wanaka Gym Ltd, which owns the building at 155 Tenby St. Ms Graham lives in Japan.
The ODT contacted Ms Graham via email last week, and has corresponded with her several times.
She declined to respond to questions about the tenancy tribunal orders and Mr Sagar's attempts to recover his bond money.
Five of Mr Sagar's former flatmates were successful in bringing Tenancy Tribunal dispute claims against Ms Graham on December 23.
A tribunal adjudicator found that Ms Graham was the landlord of the Wanaka Gym and had breached a "very clear duty" under S19 of the Residential Tenancy Act to lodge collected bonds within 23 days to independent stakeholder Tenancy Services.
Ms Graham was ordered to make separate payments of $1000 to Victoria Slominski, a Wanaka resident, $950 to Megan Middleton, a USA exchange student, and $750 each to French men Julien Vittupier, Arnaud Dubic, and Nicholas Arnaud.
The group had signed three month fixed-term tenancy agreements with Ms Graham.
The orders covered bond refunds to each of $450 plus a $300 fine for the non-lodgement of bond monies.
Compensation of $250 and $150 was also ordered for Ms Slominski and Ms Middleton, to cover lost wages and "additional costs incurred by the early termination of their fixed term tenancy".
Tribunal adjudicator Jim Large said Ms Graham may have an avenue to seek recompensation herself if the council was found to be wrong in obtaining its injunction.
Ms Graham and the QLDC have been locked in a protracted legal battle regarding the premises at Tenby St since 2000.
She failed in an application to the Christchurch District Court, in November, to have the council injunction on the property lifted.
Ms Graham maintains she has been subjected to a personal vendetta from the council and its staff.
Mr Sagar is scheduled to meet a tenancy tribunal adjudicator for a teleconference with Ms Graham on February 12.
