A second pensioner lay dead for at least eight months in a Wellington City Council flat but the council kept quiet about it.
Wiremu Whakaue, 68, died in his one-bedroom flat in Adelaide Rd in 2009, but his body was not discovered until March 2010, the Dominion Post reports.
Fellow tenant Michael Clarke, 86, died in his Newtown Park flat, possibly also in 2010, and his body was not found until August last year.
The council kept quiet about Mr Whakaue's death, which has only come to light in recently released council documents.
Mr Clarke's death caused an outcry over the duty of care provided by the city council to its tenants, despite the coroner in 1997 saying it should be easy to have a system of checking on tenants to prevent similar unnoticed deaths.
The deaths of both men are now being investigated by Wellington coroner Ian Smith. An inquest will be held next month.
The council is not commenting on Mr Whakaue's death until the inquest.
Nearby resident Afa Afa said people in the flats were not particularly social.
"If someone died next door, I wouldn't know. It's a shame when people can die with no-one knowing ... But I guess that's the way with these older fellas, they like to be left alone."
NZN