A woman living at a Kāinga Ora property was “terrorised” by other tenants at the complex, who defecated outside her door and allegedly threw another woman off a balcony, according to a Tenancy Tribunal report.
The woman’s ordeal was revealed in a recent Tenancy Tribunal decision that found Kāinga Ora failed to evict the unruly tenants in a timely manner – despite numerous complaints. In finding against the housing agency, Kāinga Ora was fined $6000.
The woman said she was constantly harassed by the tenants of another unit while living at the 20-unit complex in Auckland.
She said the residents made death threats and called her a “pig lover” because she knew police officers.
They allegedly left blood, urine, and phlegm around the complex – and even defecated outside her door.
According to the tribunal decision, residents at the complex reported being constantly “intimidated” by the unruly tenants – with car tyres being slashed, fights breaking out in the hallways, and methamphetamine used on site. The woman said the unruly tenants would knock on doors asking for money and invite other antisocial guests onto the premises.
One of the tenants was charged with assault after a woman was allegedly pushed from a balcony on the second storey of the building. She suffered serious injuries, which tribunal adjudicator Rex Woodhouse said caused “significant mental trauma and distress” to those who comforted her until emergency services arrived.
The complainant said she had to pause her studies so she could deal with the behaviour.
‘Terrified by their neighbours’
In his ruling, Woodhouse said: “I consider the tenants have been terrified by their neighbours, to the extent she was fearful of leaving her house.”
Kāinga Ora sent six notices to the tenants, requesting a meeting with them to discuss the unruly behaviour.
After all the notices were ignored, Kāinga Ora applied to the tribunal to have the tenants evicted. This came two weeks after the terrorised woman had filed her own complaint.
Kāinga Ora’s application was successful, and the antisocial residents’ tenancy was terminated because they had used the property for unruly behaviour.
Woodhouse condemned Kāinga Ora for the length of time it took to have the residents removed.
He was “confident” any reasonable landlord would have applied to the Tenancy Tribunal “well before the landlord did in this case”.
“By persisting with requesting meetings, all that the landlord has done is continue to allow the other tenants in the complex to be disturbed by the behaviour of the unit 10 tenants.
“I find, by a very significant margin, that the landlord has not taken all reasonably steps to ensure that none or the landlord’s other tenants caused or interfered with the reasonably peace, comfort or privacy of the other tenants (this applicant) in the use of her premises.”
Kāinga Ora was ordered to pay $6000 in compensation and general damages to the tenant.
Government orders agency to act
The Government recently directed Kāinga Ora to “strengthen” its approach to “terminations” for anti-social and disruptive social housing tenants last month.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop instructed the agency to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework, which he says “allowed tenants to stay living in a Kāinga Ora home no matter how threatening or disruptive their behaviour, or how much damage they cause to the property”.
He said that meant there was no incentive for tenants to improve poor behaviour or “stop deliberately damaging their taxpayer-owned house”.
“There are hundreds of serious complaints every month. The most recent statistic has been 335 serious complaints per month.”
He said those complaints included “things like intimidation, harassment, threatening behaviour and worse”.
“And yet, in all of 2023 only three tenancies ended due to ‘disruptive behaviour’.
“New Zealanders are sick of hearing about terrifying and heartbreaking stories from neighbours of abusive and antisocial Kāinga Ora tenants. It’s completely unacceptable that people should have to live in fear.”
‘Repeated efforts to address the disruptive behaviour’
In a statement, Kāinga Ora’s John Tubberty, regional director for Auckland Central and East, said it had made “repeated efforts to address the disruptive behaviour that was occurring at this complex”.
“Prior to the December incident, our team had visited the property on six occasions. It is important that the customer who has had a complaint made about their behaviour has an opportunity to respond to that complaint. On each occasion they left a letter outlining the concerns and requesting a meeting.
“We accept the Tenancy Tribunal’s finding that we could have moved to termination sooner. We are changing our approach to how we manage disruptive behaviour, in line with the expectation given to us by the Government. As part of this changed approach, we will be accelerating the process of terminating tenancies in severe or persistent cases.”
