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Tenant gets vaccination ultimatum

Brianna Mcilraith

An Auckland tenant has been told he will need to be vaccinated if he wants to continue living in his home.

In a private Facebook group, Maraetai resident Alex Robinson shared a letter from his landlords, which said they no longer wanted an unvaccinated person living in their home, to protect themselves.

‘‘We fully understand that it is your right to choose not to be vaccinated and we respect that,’’ the letter reads. ‘‘However, we have a choice as to what is best for our health going forward in these uncertain times and have made the decision we only want doublevaccinated people to live in or visit our home.’’

The letter ended with the landlords saying Robinson had been a great tenant.

They had given him until November 1 to mull it over.

The landlord said through a text message he did not wish to comment, but they had valued their relationship with Robinson, who shared some of their home facilities. Robinson declined to speak to Stuff but previously told BusinessDesk he was not ‘‘comfortable’’ getting the Pfizer vaccine yet.

Discrimination against prospective tenants or current tenants is unlawful under tenancy law when it breaches the Human Rights Act 1993, national manager of compliance and investigation for tenancy services Steve Watson said. It is unlawful not to grant a tenancy to a person because of their race, nationality or disability. ‘‘Disability includes physical illness, or the presence in the body of organisms capable of causing illness. This includes Covid-19,’’ he said.

But there are exceptions in the law for situations where someone is sharing a property, which may apply in Robinson’s case.

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2021-10-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281779927337263

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