An absentee landlord has been awarded more than $600,000 after an agreement with his family turned sour, Stuff.co.nz reports.

In 1991, Manthi Srilal Perera asked his sister and brother in law, Chamali Supriya Singh and Avninderpal Singh, to look after his rental property in the Wellington suburb of Northland while he stayed and worked in Melbourne. For 24 years, he left them in charge of his rental property and his bank account and trusted them to pay his life insurance premiums.

However, he eventually found out that several hundred thousand dollars of debt was secured against his rental property while money was withdrawn from his life insurance. His sister and brother in law even tried to transfer the property to their name but failed as his partner had lodged a caveat against the title.

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Perera claimed $940,000 from the couple, who claimed that they owed him $57,920.85.

Justice Helen Cull of the High Court in Wellington said she upheld most of Perera’s claims and awarded him $604,500. However, she asked for further submissions on the complicated interest component that has yet to be decided.

She also rejected the absentee landlord’s claim for mental stress damages and exemplary damages to punish the couple for outrageous conduct – noting that his stress was not that high as where damages had been awarded in other cases.