Do you have one of those tenants who seem to know the system inside-out, so much so that he always, always, gets away with paying rent late? I had one once. And let me tell you something, it was like being stuck in the Twilight Zone. For months no end, he would always be exactly 20 days behind on rent, carefully skirting around the 21-day legislative deadline for the Tenancy Tribunal to intervene and order a termination. That sneaky little so-and-so… #$%#^@
Thanks to the case of Cattermole v Jackson, the District Court has unequivocally closed the loophole previously available for habitual late paying tenants.
Cattermole v Jackson started off as nothing more than a run-of-the-mill story so spectacular in its indistinguishability that it attracted little attention when first heard at the Tenancy Tribunal in early 2012. Cattermole took a tenancy from Jackson. The tenancy was plagued with persistent rent arrears and dishonoured payments. Jackson applied under s56 of the Residential Tenancies Act for termination which the Tribunal granted.
Not willing to let sleeping dogs lie, Cattermole promptly lodged an appeal against the decision and it wasn’t until the case arrived at the District Court that it became of some seminal importance. Unwittingly, and some might say ironically, in setting out to exaggerate his rights as a non-paying tenant, Cattermole had paved the way for the broadening of a landlord’s scope to terminate a tenancy.
Amongst other things, Cattermole claimed that at the time of Jackson’s application, his rent was less than three weeks in arrears. Jackson therefore had no ground to apply for a s56 termination and the Tribunal had no jurisdiction to preside over the case. That said, Cattermole accepted that at the time of the Tribunal hearing rent...
