Everything from duvets to ladders have been thrown over the fence.
Lower Hutt residents are at their wit’s end after a tenant at the neighbouring Kāinga Ora flat started throwing everything from dirty laundry to scooters and stepladders into their yards multiple times a week.
The agency said it is doing what it can about the “complex” matter under the Residential Tenancies Act, and “won’t hesitate to take further action” if needed.
The issue first began about August this year when Claire* noticed multiple items had been thrown over the fence into her garden one day. She wondered whether the wind had somehow blown them over, until it continued happening.
While it is sporadic, items can be thrown over daily or even multiple times a day, while other times it might happen as little as once a fortnight, she said.
Claire has had everything from dirty clothing to a stepladder, a scooter, metal poles from a rotary clothesline and pieces of wood thrown over her fence.
In September, she laid a formal complaint with Kāinga Ora, and has continued to contact them when she has had the energy for it. The first real response she had was when a property manager knocked on her door to discuss the complaint.
She told Claire she would need to speak with the tenant. Claire has not had any resolution offered since then, and has not had a response to her emails since the beginning of December.
Meanwhile, items continue to fly over the fence. Just the other day Claire was working in her garden when she heard noises and retreated inside. She watched from the window as the neighbour threw a scooter over the fence.
“I started asking can they just extend the fence up much higher so that nothing can be thrown over? They said no, they can’t,” she said.
“I don’t know what else to do ... obviously just being polite and going through the normal channels isn’t doing anything.”
Claire has lived at her house for nearly 10 years and this is the first time she has had issues with rubbish being thrown over the fence.
“It’s so stressful,” she said. “My garden is my place that I really enjoy being in, but it’s like every day I’m just thinking is there something else?
“It’s a human impact.”
She has started wondering whether she should sell her house to get away from the issue.
Meanwhile, the neighbour on the other side of the Kāinga Ora flats said he had laid complaints several times since the issue began.
He regularly had rubbish, household items, and “just random bits and pieces” landing in his yard. Aaron* estimated it happened two or three times a week.
“I have made four complaints to Kāinga Ora, I’ve called 111 like three times, I made three or four 105 complaints to police.”
Aaron said he felt “very insecure” knowing someone was regularly throwing things into his yard, and wondered whether the person was also climbing up to peer into his yard or even coming over the fence to retrieve items.
He felt as though he needed to be at home all the time in case that happened, but equally didn’t enjoy being at home because of the stress caused by seeing things thrown over.
He felt “helplessness” and “frustration” at the situation and what he felt was inaction from agencies.
“If I was a landlord and my tenants were doing that, I would be taken to the Tenancy Tribunal,” he said.
While he sympathised that housing managers for Kāinga Ora were often in difficult situations with tenants, “at some stage something has to be done”.
He wanted Kāinga Ora to assure him it would not happen again or evict the tenant to remove the issue entirely.
Kāinga Ora regional director for the Greater Wellington region, Sarah Willson, said they were looking into the matter and investigating what could be done.
“We appreciate how distressing this situation has been,” she said, noting they were taking it seriously.
“While privacy rules prevent us from sharing all the details, we are using the tools available under the Residential Tenancies Act [RTA] to resolve this issue and will keep reviewing the situation closely.
“We’ve investigated raising the height of the fence between the two properties but that’s unlikely to resolve the issue as there are other complex factors driving the behaviour that we, as a landlord, cannot address.”
Willson apologised for not acknowledging some of the recent communications from affected residents.
“We are looking into it and won’t hesitate to take further action under the RTA, where appropriate.”
Hutt Valley area prevention manager Inspector Shaun Linguard confirmed police have received reports about two incidents at the property, but said no criminal offending was identified, meaning police could not take any further action.
The Herald was unable to speak with the tenant.
The residents’ names have been changed.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.