According to a recently released decision, the woman claimed that during the tenancy, abuse was constantly shouted out at her over the fence; her daughter and son had been challenged to fights; rubbish had been thrown over the fence; and loud music had been played for long periods into the night, and on a boombox being carried up and down the road.
She’d also been sworn at in her driveway, had rocks thrown at her and her family and were harassed when she called the police.
The police had been called for three separate incidents. One on February 4, 2024, when the male neighbour was reported as being hostile and shouting threats while standing at the tenant’s front gate.
A second incident occurred on March 2, 2024, when the male neighbour was reported as standing outside the tenant’s front gate making threats while holding a machete.
The most volatile experience had been when they had threatened to kill her son with a machete on June 10 last year.
The son said the male neighbour was working in the garden with a shovel and a machete and started to abuse him and his son and threatened to kill them.
The man was charged with threatening to kill but was convicted of a lesser charge in relation to the weapon.
The woman’s daughter also provided a written statement to the authority and gave evidence at the hearing about an incident in which her 14-year-old son was walking home from school when the male tenant was returning home in a car.
She said the male tenant chased her son in the car, driving on to the grass verge, and that her son was only able to escape by hiding behind a boat situated on a grass verge. The police were called but attended the next day.
‘Lives in constant fear’
The woman said she “lives in constant fear” of the neighbouring tenants and will often stay inside her home because she is too afraid to venture outside. On occasion, she had stayed with her daughter because she couldn’t cope with being at home.
She had multiple health issues that impacted her mobility and sight, and recently had a stroke.
She and her son had reported the behaviour to Kāinga Ora numerous times during the tenancy but their response had always been to tell her and her family to keep to themselves and not engage with the neighbours.
She said she initially wanted the neighbour to move so she could live in peace, but now that she has multiple health issues, she wants to leave the tenancy.
Kāinga Ora did not dispute that the tenant had reported ongoing issues with this tenancy and was well aware of the tenant’s complaints of shouting, abuse and loud music.
It confirmed that the organisation had been notified of the three police incidents but said the issue was complex because on some occasions there was aggression on both sides, including a physical altercation between the male neighbour and the tenant’s son, which resulted in an antisocial notice being issued to both.
Kāinga Ora said it had considered whether it could terminate the neighbour’s tenancy under section 55A of the Residential Tenancies Act (termination for assault) following the machete incident, but ultimately determined it could not do so because the neighbouring tenant herself was not home and the male at the address was not a listed tenant and had threatened this tenant’s son and not the tenant herself.
The organisation was also unable to apply to terminate the tenancy for antisocial behaviour as there had not been three incidents within a 90 -day period.
Tribunal adjudicator Melissa Allan said the tenant had been “left in a very difficult situation”.
“She has not felt free to move about her property, often remains inside, and has been subjected to unreasonable levels of noise, rubbish being thrown, screaming and yelling and threats being made to her family members.
“The landlord should have filed an application to terminate the neighbouring tenancy. It is not necessary for criminal charges to be proven or even laid.
“The landlord only needed to prove, to the civil standard, that the tenant has been interfering with the reasonable pace, comfort and privacy of the tenant and that the breach is of such a nature and of such an extent that it would be inequitable to refuse to make an order terminating the tenancy.”
By failing to take steps the landlord had breached its obligations, she said.
Kāinga Ora was ordered to pay the tenant $5000 in compensation for breach of landlord’s obligations and was looking to transfer the tenant to a tenancy that is more suited to her current health needs.
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.