Two tenants who threw an open-invite party in their rental property at Fernhill last month have until midnight tomorrow to leave it.
The Tenancy Tribunal has ordered the eviction of Edward Masters and James Hampton from the Lordens Pl home following a hearing in Queenstown on April 13.
Tribunal adjudicator Mark Benvie also found Queenstown Accommodation Centre (QAC) general manager Craig Dow unlawfully entered the property and ordered QAC to pay the tenants $150 in compensation.
But, QAC managing director Allan Baillie told the Otago Daily Times yesterday it was the ``best $150 we've spent on behalf of landlords''.
``We now have a case where organised public parties are grounds for eviction.
``I hope our actions here will save the community the costs, stresses and consequences of this type of activity.''
The March 4 house party was advertised on social media and was shut down by police at 1am the next day after generating several noise complaints from neighbours.
Officers were pelted with bottles after extra staff were brought in from Wanaka, Alexandra and Cromwell to help local staff close it down.
Mr Dow entered the property at 7pm the next day and told the tribunal he was ``shocked'' at what he saw - bottles were strewn around the house, there was vomit on the floor and a large window in the bathroom had been smashed.
The company subsequently applied to have the two men evicted on the grounds of a ``severe breach'' of the Residential Tenancies Act by interfering with the ``reasonable peace, comfort, or privacy of any other person residing in the neighbourhood'', upheld by Mr Benvie.
Mr Baillie said the decision was ``significant'' and also unexpected.
``Normally tenants have to display multiple breaches before you can grant an eviction, but, obviously what the guys did was seen [as being] serious enough on one occasion to get there.
``It's a result we were not expecting to be honest . . . but obviously there's been a common sense approach taken by the tenancy services.''
The QAC accepted at the hearing Mr Dow had acted illegally by entering the property on the Sunday evening. However, ``we had the owner of the property's best interests [in mind]''.
``The outcome of it is what the landlord wanted ... those people to be made an example of and he wanted them evicted from the property and we've managed to achieve that.''
