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A man who sprayed blood all over his apartment building, damaged the lift with a knife and made holes in the wall using "significant force", has been ordered to pay thousands in damages to his landlord.
The Tenancy Tribunal has ordered the man to pay his landlord around $8500 in costs for the damage which resulted in him being arrested after police were called.
It comes after an earlier decision terminated the man's tenancy but he refused to leave and was eventually evicted by way of bailiff earlier this year.
The "incident" happened last December when the tenant had been drinking with a friend.
CCTV footage showed the man standing in the lobby near the lift on the seventh floor holding a knife. He later kicked the wall near the lift and broke off the sanitiser dispenser.
Images provided to the tribunal showed the extent of the damage, and spread of blood, as the tenant had cut his hand and admitted the blood was his.
The pictures showed holes in his one-bedroom apartment and the hole in the hallway, the first from when he tripped while drunk and the second when police arrested him, using "excessive force".
"Reasonably extensive blood marks" were also found throughout the unit and the apartment common areas, including the lift.
The decision said the damage would have required significant force.
The landlord took the man to the tribunal on December 20 last year and was granted possession of the flat, and the tenant was to be evicted.
It was accepted by the tenant at that hearing that he had "made mistakes and wants to pay for the damage".
"While I appreciate everything the tenant told me, his own difficulties and intoxication do not absolve him from responsibility for the significant damage caused to the apartment and to the corridor outside," said the adjudicator last year.
The tenant caused damages to the steel lifts quoted at nearly $4000. Photo / 123RF
Despite the notice of eviction, the tenant refused to leave, and a bailiff was required by the landlord to get back his property.
Rent arrears, rubbish removal and cleaning costs were the tip of the iceberg in claims that were awarded to the landlord by the tribunal. The most significant was the lift repair bill - $3714.
The repair invoice, detailed by the recent decision, said two sections of the stainless-steel panels on the inside of the lift had been damaged and were replaced. The dents, according to the decision released by adjudicator Rex Woodhouse, were consistent with a knife strike.
"Given the panels are stainless steel, there would need to be a considerable force to cause that sort of damage," Woodhouse said.
Blood stain removal costs amounted to $1288 which was billed by the body corporate for the emergency cleaning fee of the floor and lift.
"Significant" damage to the internal walls of the flat came to $1437.
A less significant charge was the hand sanitiser dispenser, which needed to be replaced after the tenant broke it off the wall as shown on the CCTV footage.
One of the only claims that were dismissed was the $27,950 bill incurred by the body corporate after appointing a security guard because of the incident, which was then charged to the unit owner.
Woodhouse dismissed this and said although the appointment of the guard was "presumably to provide a measure of ease to the other occupants of the complex" there was no provision in the residential tenancies act that anticipates costs for security with a potential future event in mind.
"Just because the body corporate makes a decision to incur a cost for something, does not mean it can be pursued against a single unit owner," Woodhouse said.
The location of the tenancy and where the hearing occurred were suppressed by the tribunal.
