The landlord claimed that elderly residents’ physical and mental health were suffering due to the tenant and his visitors’ ongoing anti-social behaviour. The tenant was also breaching the complex’s rules by allowing smoking in his unit and visitor cars on site, which was creating a nuisance for other residents.
One nearly 90-year-old resident had told her, “I would just like to spend what time I have left in the world in peace”, the landlord said.
The swag of incidents this year began with one at about 3pm on January 18, when complaints of loud noise, shouting and swearing prompted a police call-out.
On February 1, visitors to the tenant’s unit turned up carrying beer, causing concerns among neighbours the situation might escalate. And it did. After multiple complaints, the landlord and two employees went to the complex and discovered loud partying, and aggressive shouting and swearing coming from the unit.
A visitor’s van was blocking other residents’ car parks.
The tenant was urinating in a common area garden. Smells of cigarettes and another “unknown substance” were wafting from his unit despite a rule forbidding smoking inside.
Two days later, a resident complained of more loud noise, banging, and excessive yelling coming from the unit for three and a half hours. It had started at 5am.
On February 23, six people toting beer turned up at about 5pm — the start of loud partying and people coming and going until 4am. A tenant’s car park was blocked for 20 minutes.
There were multiple complaints to the landlord, tenants saying they couldn’t sleep, felt unsafe, and were stressed out by the ongoing incidents.
There was a similar drunken gathering that started about lunchtime on March 8 and continued well into the afternoon.
On March 22, the landlord received reports of the tenant standing outside in the common grounds shouting and yelling at other residents.
There were more complaints about drunken behaviour and smoking in the unit, two days later.
The tenant told the tribunal adjudicator he was “very stressed” at the prospect of losing his tenancy due to uninvited visitors. It had been difficult sometimes getting them to leave. Once, he wanted to call police but couldn’t find his phone.
He was only guilty of having urinated outside but it was in a drain and he’d apologised. He couldn’t use his toilet as visitors were sitting on it. They’d called in to check on him as he was still recovering from a serious respiratory infection.
Cigarettes and cannabis weren’t being smoked in his unit — the smell of them just “drifts” in, the man said.
He tried to be quiet and was afraid to make any noise when he was there alone for fear of further complaints.
However, the adjudicator said the man’s claim he tried to get visitors to leave had worn thin after such a number of ongoing incidents over a long time and where visitors had stayed several hours.
There was no evidence of the man having taken any steps to have the visitors removed or to prevent them calling around by issuing trespass notices for instance. By allowing them to stay, he was legally responsible for their behaviour.
The tribunal found the landlord had followed due process and that it would not be unfair to terminate the tenancy. The tenant was given a month to leave.
