By Debbie Jamieson of 
This Speargrass Flat home, near Arrowtown, was rented for $2000 a week, until the tenants stopped paying. Photo: Debbie Jamieson / Stuff
A Wellington woman's first experience as a landlord is likely to be her last after her Arrowtown tenants left with a $17,000 debt owing.
Landlord Suzie Bognar took to social media to locate former tenants Michael Pearce and Fiona Knapp this week, claiming they owed her thousands of dollars.
Pearce leased the Bognar family's exclusive Speargrass Flat home for $2000 a week, but failed to pay rent past the first two payments.
The Tenancy Tribunal terminated the lease in January, with Pearce ordered to pay $16,730.14, the majority being rent arrears.
The couple, who recently returned to New Zealand after living in the United Kingdom, had paid a portion of the money, but Bognar was short about $12,000, she said.
When approached on Wednesday at their new rental in Queenstown, Pearce and Knapp declined to comment.
The new property in the upmarket Jacks Point subdivision was advertised for a weekly rent of $1795 in April.
Knapp posted a photo of family skiing at a nearby ski area on social media, on Tuesday.
Pearce told the Tenancy Tribunal that funds to pay the Speargrass Flat rent were blocked as a result of the anti-money laundering regime in the UK, but did not offer evidence.
The UK Insolvency Register separately lists Pearce and Knapp as being bankrupted from 2021 until 2029.
Michael Pearce and Fiona Knapp. Photo: Supplied
They have backgrounds in clothing retail, investing and jewellery and were once described as a "society power couple", living in properties such as a grade II-listed Notting Hill apartment in London and a Surrey mansion.
Bognar said she felt she was conned by the couple.
"It's mainly disappointment. We had this high trust model and you don't expect people to not pay then basically ignore you and hope you go away. It's just bizarre," she said.
She also felt she had been naive.
The property was purchased by a family trust less than two years ago and it was decided to rent it out for a few months over summer, as they weren't using it.
They considered listing it on Airbnb but thought a longer-term rental would help with Queenstown's accommodation shortage.
"I don't think we'll ever do it again. It was such a bad experience," she said.
It was also important for prospective landlords to understand how difficult it was to enforce property rights.
Several weeks without rental payments passed before she was able to take the couple to the Tenancy Tribunal, and even when the tenancy was terminated, there was no guarantee the couple and their family would leave the property.
They did leave, but then the onus was on Bognar to track down the couple and seek the outstanding rent.
"Every now and then they promise to pay some money and then nothing happens," she said.
"The whole process takes so long. There is a bailiff involved now but it's quite a long time since January 26."
Ultimately it was a moral issue, she said.
"It seems wrong for them to continue to rent other high-end Queenstown properties while trying to ignore an outstanding debt."
- This story was originally published by Stuff.
