Taranaki landlord harassed her tenant over unpaid rent and a bad haircut

This Taranaki home and granny flat was the scene of a fraught tenancy which descended into violence after a bad haircut. Photo / Tara Shaskey

• Landlord Rayma Read and tenant Vernalee Broadmore engaged in a tit-for-tat feud that led to Read being found to have harassed her renter.
• The Tenancy Tribunal terminated the tenancy, citing assaults and an “extremely strained” relationship.
• Read was ordered to pay $4050 in damages, while Broadmore owed $3914 in unpaid rent.

A bad haircut sparked violence between an elderly Taranaki landlord and her tenant, and messages calling the renter’s family “lowlife mongrels” and “a bad group of idiots”.

Landlord Rayma Read also threw a brick through her tenant’s window and “ripped up” her vege garden, while the renter’s family responded by cutting Read’s roses and pushing her into a hedge.

That’s according to a recent Tenancy Tribunal decision, which found Read harassed tenant Vernalee Broadmore, but that Broadmore also owed Read unpaid rent.

Tribunal adjudicator M Kemp ultimately ordered the New Plymouth tenancy terminated, saying the tit-for-tat feud had escalated from an “unfortunate” event.

“The tenant suggested everything turned sour when she helped her elderly landlord with her hair at the start of May 2024,” Kemp said.

Landlord and tenant had earlier lived on the same Plympton St property together for about five months, with Read in the granny flat at the back and Broadmore’s family in the main house.

But once the relationship became fractious, Read claimed she was assaulted twice.

The first incident involved a member of Broadmore’s family pushing her into a hedge and allegedly punching her, while in the second she claimed she was pushed from behind and fell over, requiring medical treatment.

However, Broadmore claimed her family member was reacting to Read’s provocations.

She claimed the first incident happened because Read was banging on their windows at 3am, while the second took place after the family member believed Read was bullying their young brother.

Adjudicator Kemp decided the tenancy should be terminated because of the assaults.

He said it was likely further confrontations would take place as the relationship was “extremely strained to say the least”.

Kemp found Broadmore also owed $3914 in unpaid rent.

This Taranaki home and granny flat was the scene of a fraught tenancy which descended into violence after a bad haircut. Photo / Tara Shaskey

However, Kemp sided with the tenant on a number of issues and awarded her compensation.

That included landlord Read having to pay $2800 in exemplary damages for harassment, $500 for unlawfully entering the family’s rental and $750 for Healthy Homes violations.

Kemp said the tenant presented the tribunal with a long list of abusive text messages and letters from Read. They included regular swear words, such as “s*** heads” and “bad bad b****”.

Read called Broadmore a “bloody thief” and “trouble maker”, and her family “crazy people” and “weirdos”.

She also sent late-night messages, such as: “Quiet in my house. Stop all the yelling now”.

In January this year, she sent a handwritten letter that repeatedly used capped words to tell the family to “Get out” of her house and signed off the letter with: “Get someone with a brain to read this letter and explain it to you - you dumb a**”.

The adjudicator said he had no doubt the messages “caused the tenant distress and were emotionally difficult to receive”.

“The landlord has apologised in writing in the context of the proceedings, however, I consider this to be too late and does not negate the harassment,” he said.

Broadmore also claimed her landlord took 30 of her pot plants, including one containing her father’s ashes, ripped up her vege garden, threw a brick through her window and stones at her house, put flour on a guest’s car and regularly banged on her doors and windows.

Kemp decided it was more likely than not that Read had done the things alleged.

“All of this behaviour shows an uncontrollable frustration at the situation the landlord has found herself in,” he said.

However, it was important landlords turned to the Tenancy Tribunal to solve their rental issues rather than abuse their tenants, he said.

The final decision meant Read had to pay $136 to her tenant.

That was due to the $3914 in unpaid rent being slightly less than the $4050 in exemplary damages Read had been ordered to pay to Broadmore.

Ben Leahy is an Auckland-based senior journalist. He has worked as a journalist for more than a decade in India, Australia and New Zealand.