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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Abigail O'Leary

Rogue tenant admits selling £3,500 of her landlord's furniture on Facebook

A tenant sold £3,500 of her landlord's property on Facebook.

Joanna Cathrine Penny Filipaina rented her home in Manukau, south Auckland, from Investment Portfolio Management Limited Partnership.

The agency ran the property for a landlord, and arranged for an inspection the day her tenancy ended in November 2021.

They found a huge haul of furniture was missing from inside the flat, including the fridge, washing machine, dryer, swivel chair, bedside table, console, table, mattress, bedhead, TV, blinds, wardrobe, washer dryer and shower.

A tribunal heard how the "the tenant admitted in a text message to taking the furniture items and selling them on Facebook."

Joanna Cathrine Penny Filipaina sold thousands of pound worth of furniture on Facebook (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Along with the sold items, there was also extensive damage to the property - which included a broken toilet, holes in walls, scrape marks on walls and damage to locks and doors.

The tribunal heard most of the damage to the property, which was new at the start of the tenancy, was intentional.

Filipaina was ordered to pay back $7661.83 to her landlord - around £3,500 - to mostly cover the replacement of furnishings.

She was also ordered to pay for the damage repairs, including plastering and painting.

Last year, a UK landlord and landlady shared what their squalid home looked like after every room was trashed by their "tenant from hell".

Pensioners Jane and Vic Shoulders say they were devastated to find every room in their property trashed during an 18-month battle with their tenant.

The landlords, from Swindon, claim they eventually kicked out the tenant and are now faced with thousands of pounds of damage.

They decided to rent out their three-bed house for £750 per month after originally relocating to be near a sick relative.

They now say their once "show home" has been left littered with hundreds of bags of rubbish, a collapsed ceiling, broken children’s toys, hundreds of takeaway boxes and even two dead hamsters.

The couple says their nightmare tenant moved into the property but only paid one month's rent government rules made it illegal to evict during lockdown.

They claim the unnamed young mother continued to live rent-free for a further 18 months.

Jane, 60 said: “It was such a lovely home but she has completely ruined it.

“Despite only paying rent once at the start of last year, we had to wait three months to start a lawful eviction.

“Then we went into lockdown and there was nothing we could do.”

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