An 85-year-old woman has been evicted from her unit at a social housing complex because of her behaviour.
An 85-year-old woman has been evicted from her unit at a social housing complex because of her behaviour.
An 85-year-old has been kicked out of a social housing village after bullying other tenants and making multiple false accusations against them including that one neighbour was “wiggling and flashing her bottom”.
The Salvation Army New Zealand Trust turned to the Tenancy Tribunal to terminate the woman’s lease on the grounds of anti-social behaviour - she had been issued with seven 14-day notices to remedy her behaviour between 2019 and 2022, and three anti-social behaviour notices this year.
The woman, who was granted name suppression by the authority, lived in a unit at the Gisborne complex until last month, when possession of the flat was returned to the Salvation Army.
The Tenancy Tribunal’s recently released decision detailed multiple complaints laid with the landlord against the woman.
Her alleged conduct included “knocking and scraping” another tenant’s bedroom wall for 10 minutes one evening, leading to the neighbour wanting to leave the village because of the woman’s “bullying behaviour”.
The matter was heard by the Tenancy Tribunal. Photo / 123rf
The woman repeatedly accused another tenant of playing loud music, when they hadn’t, and she alleged a neighbour had put a hole in her wall so they could peek at her through it.
A tenancy manager inspected the wall and believed the hole was caused by wood breaking down as the weather got in.
The woman, however, continued accusing the neighbour and added they were using cannabis.
It was also alleged the woman had verbally abused a neighbour and accused them of listening to her phone calls.
Other problematic behaviour included loud offensive language, smoking in her unit, feeding the birds and encouraging pests at the complex, the tribunal heard.
“The landlord has tried to discuss these issues with the tenant on numerous occasions and has tried repeatedly to contact the tenant’s son to obtain his assistance in her maintaining her tenancy, with no response from him,” the decision said.
“There have apparently been many opportunities for the tenant to rectify matters but this has not occurred.”
The Salvation Army told the tribunal the woman’s behaviour had caused too much disruption and stress for the other tenants in the complex to allow her tenancy to continue.
The agency claimed the behaviour was getting worse.
The woman denied bullying or harassing behaviour and said she had not caused any problems at the village.
She rejected the Salvation Army’s allegations and said “the process” has been insulting towards her and has made her out to be a fool.
The woman claimed her neighbour’s loud music had made her life hell, that it was another tenant who had made the “wiggling and flashing her bottom” comment, and that it must have been a rat knocking on her neighbour’s wall.
She denied making allegations to her tenancy manager about the hole in her wall and the cannabis smoking.
The woman claimed to have not received any notices from the Salvation Army about her behaviour and said she did not know why they would “make up” having issued her with them.
The tribunal said it was clear from the woman’s reactions during the investigation meeting that it has been a stressful time for her also.
However, the tribunal found it more likely than not that the behaviour alleged by the landlord had occurred.
“The evidence from the landlord, in my view, shows several acts by the tenant towards others, whether intentional or not, particularly towards her neighbour and another tenant, that reasonably caused distress and nuisance that is more than minor.”
The tribunal found the Salvation Army had established anti-social behaviour had taken place, the woman had received notices about her conduct, and it would not be unfair to terminate the tenancy.
Accordingly, the woman was ordered to vacate the unit.
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.
