LANDLADY FINED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 31, 30 October 1937, Page 7

LANDLADY FINED

—Press Associatiqn.)

"• "7T"r,rT". - - Ti'"-*' ^ Secured Possession o{ House, Then Let It At Higher Rent | k> "FOOLISH THING TO D0"

(By Telegraph

WELLINGTON, Last Night,- ' In the first oase of jts kind brought under- the- Fair- Rpnts Act in tho Auckland Police Court, Oscar McBrine, InSpector of Factories, prosecuted on summons Adelaida Coffey, landlord of a kQuse at Seafield Vjpw road, Grafton, on a charge of letting the premises Within sk? months af ter obtaining pQSjsession from a tenant by the represem jtation that she rpqujred. the house for ifior owu nse and pccupatlen. Mr, Nigel Wilsqn appeared for de* Ifendaut, whq pleaded not gnilty. Evidenpe was giyen that pppsession !had been obtained from a tenant wkp !had ooeupied the house for 5h years- on 'the representation that the • owner requirod the house for her own occupa- j tion. The tenaut was paying £1 13a : per vreek as rent and left thp house j on May 1. : The present tenant sai4 ia evidence \ that he went into ■oecupation on May 8, ; He first paid per week ag rent, but thig had sincp beep adjugted and he was 1 at prefent paying £1 15s. ; Qhq witness, a heighbonr, said the same day as the pceupiers left the J house, defendant was at the hoiise in- ] tervjewing prospectiva tenants. ( The Magistrate said thp facts of the | ease were simple. After telling the ! tenant that she wanted tho house to live I in herselfj defendant, on flnding she ' W89 unftble tq obtain her furniture, 1 changed her mind and let the house 1 again. She had no power to do this mitil she had obtained permission from x Magistrate, It was quite possible jonsenfc would have been giyen if tho facts were ua Stated— that she had 1 jhanged her mind. r "Defendant is liabje to a penalty of 1 550," said the Magistrate, "It was a .! foolj.sk thiug tq do, It waa let at a ^ ligher rentai and some suspieiqn ataches to that,'' . • . * A fine of £5 and costs, plua witnesses ' ^ :xpenses, was imposefi. . Ja