Tenancy Tribunal evicts tenant from rental for assault and interfering in landlord’s peace

A landlord and his tenant have been unable to maintain friendly relations once the lawnmower switches on. Photo/123RF

• A landlord claimed a tenant kicked him during a 2024 lawnmowing feud.
• Tenancy Tribunal adjudicator Nicholas Blake ruled the tenant acted in self defence during the incident.
• However, the tenant was evicted from her rental after being found to have committed a separate assault in February 2023 and for repeatedly interfering with her landlord’s peace.

A landlord has claimed his tenant kicked him in the groin and struck him in the face during a lawnmowing feud.

He also accused tenant Lillian Gilliland of erratic behaviour and regularly running in front of his tractor to stop him mowing the lawn at a property next door.

Gilliland for her part denied hitting her landlord in the face during the June 2024 altercation and said she only kicked out in self-defence.

In a Tenancy Tribunal ruling recently made public, adjudicator Nicholas Blake accepted Gilliland’s kick had been in self-defence.

However, he found she had committed a separate assault against her landlord a year earlier and that she had no right to stop him mowing a lawn on a property that wasn’t her rental.

“The landlord’s evidence shows that Ms Gilliland has, on multiple occasions, stood in front of tractors and other pieces of machinery refusing to move. That behaviour is dangerous and unacceptable,” Blake ruled.

The landlord - who was only identified in the ruling as Mr M and whose property address was suppressed - brought the case to the tribunal last year following the June 14 incident.

CCTV footage from Gilliland’s home on that day showed her landlord mowing near her house but on a separate property.

The landlord then got off the mower and walked to a line of trees on the tenant’s side of the driveway.

“He was shouting at Ms Gilliland, telling her not to film him or his children. Ms Gilliland began striding towards Mr M,” Blake said.

The camera - which only filmed when nearby motion activated it - did not capture the altercation that took place further away, while Gilliland and her landlord gave differing accounts.

The landlord didn’t deny he was on the tenant’s property or that he attempted to knock Gilliland’s phone out of her hand at the time of the incident, Blake said.

However, he claimed Gilliland hit him in the face and groin.

Gilliland denied hitting her landlord in the face and said she “kicked out with her foot when Mr M ‘lunged’ at her”, Blake said.

“Her foot made contact, but she could not recall where on Mr M’s body.”

Blake ultimately ruled Gilliland had acted in self-defence during this incident as her landlord was trespassing at her rental in an agitated state, had tried to knock her phone out of her hand, and was tall and physically much stronger.

However, Gilliland and the landlord both admitted that a separate lawnmowing-inspired altercation had also taken place the year before in February 2023.

Gilliland said her landlord had been on her rental property that time too and was goading her.

So she “swung” at him trying to land a slap but missed, she told the tribunal.

The landlord, however, claimed she hit him hard on the head.

Blake ruled that regardless of whether Gilliland landed her blow or not, this incident constituted an assault.

He said he was even more alarmed by the dangers posed by Gilliland’s repeated attempts to stop the landlord from mowing a paddock unconnected with the rental property.

The assault together with Gilliland’s “erratic” and “unpredictable” behaviour meant there was a real risk the lawnmowing could be a “continuing flash point” and lead to worse conflict, Blake said.

That meant it would be “inequitable” to refuse the landlord’s request to terminate the tenancy, he said.

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