Then, on November 7, Palmer hosted a birthday party and within two hours, police arrived and arrested two of her guests for parole violations.
That day, several neighbours had complained about loud music, offensive language, intoxicated people and one person parking a motorcycle inside the apartment block.
The neighbours were reportedly so distressed that they requested security guards in the building for the weekend.
Following another application to the Tenancy Tribunal by the landlord, Edward Meili, a hearing was held, which Palmer did not attend.
However, she did tell Meili that there had been no loud music playing during the birthday party, that only eight people attended and she did not understand why the police were called.
But in a recently released decision, tenancy adjudicator Michelle Pollack found Palmer’s version of events did not match the police report filed.
According to the decision, two weeks after the party, two of Palmer’s guests were arguing on her patio.
The tenant has been evicted from her apartment following multiple breaches. Photo/ 123rf
Neighbours witnessed and filmed a distressed woman escaping a man by climbing over the balcony and scaling the side of the building to reach the front.
They stated the woman was “super high” and “almost fell”.
The police were called again, and the man was taken into custody.
Two other incidents were also reported to the landlord, which included one of Palmer’s guests graffitiing the inside of the building and another bringing a dog into the apartment.
In the decision, Pollack ruled that Palmer’s continued breaches were not capable of remedy.
She wrote that Palmer had done nothing to ensure her guests did not engage in antisocial conduct and behaviours which were “worrying, distressing and concerning” to others in the neighbourhood and the apartment building.
Palmer also allowed her guests to engage in behaviour conduct that resulted in police attending on a frequent enough basis that her neighbours felt “afraid and harassed” by incidents such as the balcony event, Pollack said.
Pollack also noted the neighbours were afraid to continue living in the complex.
She was satisfied that the continued breaches were intentional.
Palmer’s tenancy was terminated, and she was ordered to pay $3263 in costs to the body corporate.
Meili owns and manages several apartments in the Auckland CBD and told NZME the industry had changed over his career.
He believed more people were vacating apartments in the CBD to either leave the country or move to more “serene areas”.
“I work in the CBD and must walk past at least 50-60 homeless people a day. I shudder to think what cruise tourists think,” he said.
Meili said he had advertised the apartment for a month with no interest when Palmer contacted him and said she could move in the next day.
He said she came with references, which he checked, and that her rent was always paid on time.
But the complaints soon began rolling in, the landlord said, and when Palmer moved out, he alleged thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to the apartment was left behind.
Meili was not hopeful that any funds would be recovered from Palmer.
He said he always tried to be a good landlord and had one simple message to others out there.
“Good people are hard to find, so cherish them.”
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.