If a landlord does not comply with a Tenancy Tribunal order for costs, then the tenant may seek to enforce the debt.
The process of enforcing orders is not straightforward, so a tenant may want an advocate to assist them to communicate with the landlord to try to get the debt paid, before taking enforcement action.
If this fails, the tenant can contact the Ministry of Justice to enforce the debt. The Collections Unit in the Ministry of Justice is responsible for enforcing civil debts. This includes orders from the Tenancy Tribunal.
The court does not enforce judgment orders automatically. If the tenant wants the court to take enforcement action against a debtor, they must apply to the Court to carry out the enforcement actions they want actioned.
The tenant will generally have to pay a fee for an enforcement order and would have to know the current address of the other party. If the tenant doesn’t know the landlord’s current address, Tenancy Services have a service that may be able to help. See How to find a current address for enforcement for details.
The tenant may be able to recover any fees they pay in having the order enforced as part of their application.
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