Warning for potential landlords

This blog pertains to Mia Hamiora of Rotorua, New Zealand who is employed as a teacher at Mokoia Intermediate School, and it is written in the interest of any prospective landlord wishing to do a character reference check prior to committing to a rental agreement.

Mia Hamiora and her daughter, Lana Nelson rented two rooms in my home in Brisbane from October 2009 to July 2010. Due to my own mismanagement of my banking responsibilities, Mia Hamiora now owes me approximately $7,000 in back rent and utilities. It is necessary to acknowledge my oversight in order for this warning to be credible. The facts are as outlined below.

Mia Hamiora paid two lots of two week's rent in advance in October for herself and her daughter Lana Nelson and then Mia agreed to direct debit the rental for the two rooms to my account. The direct debit never occurred.

It wasn't until the following May that the problem was recognized and when asked about it Mia denied all knowledge of any discrepancy but promised to investigate. She appeared to be quite upset about the situation. The next day she explained that the direct debit had mistakenly been regularly transferred to her storage company in Rotorua and she would re secure the funds. Mia claimed that the storage company had tried to contact her adult daughter in Rotorua but the daughter had lost her phone. By this time quite a substantial amount of money was owing.

For the next three weeks Mia claimed to be waiting for bank transcripts (which I told her she could have printed out from the Westpac website) and then claimed the storage company was taking a long time as they needed their accountant to sort out the problem. In the meantime two more rental days came and went without rental with Mia claiming no knowledge of any problem, but then when investigating said the teller at the bank had not followed her instructions re the new account number for the direct debit.

Mia eventually said it could not be sorted out until she returned to Rotorua and spoke to the storage company in person. Why her daughter could not have gone to the company was not explained. When asked about obvious irregularities Mia simply denied knowledge of the facts. I have since contacted the company and they deny any inconsistencies with the direct debiting of funds in relation to Mia's account with them.

I explained to Mia that a person at the Westpac bank told me in such a situation all that was necessary was for the branch in question (in this instance the Virginia branch of Westpac) to contact the bank in Rotorua who would in turn contact their client and it should all be solved within a couple of days. I asked Mia to speak to this person at the bank. The next day Mia said she spoke to a person at another branch but they disagreed with that suggestion. Way before this time it was clear that my chances of retrieving the rent was minimal but I decided it was better to ride it out than not, and just hope that she did really have a conscience. Mia left her position in debt retrieval at ISS in Geebung Brisbane, and returned to Rotorua on July 26th. My email to her has gone unanswered.

Mia also invited her supposed ex partner - Dave Nelson, who had been working as a builder in Melbourne, to Brisbane for the Chrismas of 2009. I agreed that he could stay over Christmas rather than go to a hotel. Dave had no plans to leave and asked me if he could do some work on my house until he could secure a job as a builder in Brisbane. He had a long tale of woe about how he wished to re unite with his family and would be very appreciative if I could give him some work. I agreed that he could lay a concrete driveway at my home - I gave him money in advance as he could not cover the costs involved.

It eventually became necessary for me to tell Dave that he had to leave (he would arrive at the house so under the influence of alcohol that he could not walk up the stairs straight) and from that point in time the driveway was never going to be completed. This matter is now in the hands of the relevant authorities in Brisbane. Dave is not a registered builder. During these early days I felt it unfair to treat Mia and her daughter Lana Nelson disrespectfully due to the behaviour of the father so they continued to live with me. Whether they had a plan between them is conjecture but somewhat obvious, in retrospect.

From the end of January when I connected a home phone, until Easter, Mia and Lana accrued a phone bill of $600.00 and it took until just before Mia's departure for this to be paid in full. The phone was disconnected twice and I made many calls to Telstra to check on payments which Mia dishonestly told me she had made.

Both Mia Hamiora and her (ex) partner Dave Nelson have been given ample opportunty to tell the truth and correct the situation they created - but neither have chosen to do so in spite of the fact that they were treated very well at my home.

I had a debt collector contact Mia in Rotorua. Most disturbing is the fact that Mia does not acknowledge any liability or responsibility for her debt, leading me to believe that she will re offend given the opportunity.

To live a parallel existence of deceit with such complacency for such an extended period of time suggests an unsound pathology and I believe Mia Hamiora and Dave Nelson have an established pattern of deceitful and dishonest behaviour.  Should any further information be required I can be contacted at mailto:kimgr@hotmail.com