Dunedin woman who wrote complaints as poems on her walls has Tenancy Tribunal claims rejected

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A Dunedin tenant who wrote poems on her walls and sought compensation to help her move to Australia has had her claims rejected by the Tenancy Tribunal.

Grace Joy Gladden had been seeking damages over claims of a retaliatory 90-day notice issued and of harassment by her landlord.

A tribunal adjudicator dismissed Gladden's applications, while also noting her as "difficult to deal with".

Gladden alleged the notice given by her landlord to leave the North East Valley property was retaliatory, as she was seeking a new fixed-term tenancy to give her certainty after the previous one expired.

The adjudicator rejected the claim, noting Gladden herself had given a 21-day notice. The parties had also come to agreement on a new 12-month tenancy.

Gladden said she relied on receiving those damages to fund a move to Australia.

Her claims of harassment involved when the owner told her she had "bloody butchered the hedges", and another when the landlord became angry after she would not let him use her vacuum cleaner while working on the property. The adjudicator dismissed these claims.

Another complaint regarded four police visits regarding a former a tenant, which had made her frightened.

The adjudicator dismissed this claim also, noting they were not landlord breaches.

The landlord's lawyer said the landlord and owner had found Gladden to be "obstructive and difficult".

She said the volume of emails she produced was "overwhelming and their content disturbing at times".

The landlord had given her everything she wanted and despite extending the tenancy, the landlord and the owner were happy to release her from the contract.

Gladden said she was a writer and a poet, and writing was how she expressed herself.

That included writing a poem with a vivid marker on a wall at the premises due to the "negative energy from previous tenants", something she had informed the landlord about.

"That might be so but, from the substantial number of emails she has sent to the tribunal, I have some sympathy with the landlord's view that Gladden is difficult to deal with," the adjudicator said.

"I encourage her to desist from sending constant emails to the landlord and to the tribunal. They serve no useful purpose."