The woman was walking her two dogs on Takarunga Mt Victoria in Devonport (here seen from Wynyard St) when the confrontation happened. Photo / Michael Craig
A man grabbed his neighbour’s hair in a bizarre confrontation on Devonport’s Takaranga Mt Victoria before her dog leaped to her aid, according to a report to the Tenancy Tribunal.
The man kicked the dog but was forced to “let her go as her dog leaped on him, barking and growling furiously”, the tribunal was told at a hearing before it ordered the man’s eviction.
Tenant Jose Molina was reported as lunging at the woman, who was not named, while she was walking her two dogs on the maunga.
A summary of facts presented to the tribunal said he had grabbed her by her head, pulling at her hair and calling her “sweetheart”.
He was whispering something else that she didn’t understand, but he was forced to let her go as her dog reacted.
Molina left, nervous of the dog, and the woman hurried in the opposite direction, her statement said, but she could hear him yelling something as she left.
She said she remembered vividly the wild look he had in his eyes during the encounter.
The woman said that having her two dogs with her likely prevented a far more sinister outcome.
Molina “denied ever having engaged in any of the conduct complained of, except the singing and chanting. He says he is an artist and he has been recording some of his singing content for an album”, the tribunal decision said.
The dog-walker reported two further frightening encounters:
Molina had rented a studio unit above the garage of a main house owned by a couple in their 80s.
Bayleys managed the tenancy, but the man’s behaviour resulted in an eviction application.
The house and the studio are on a Church St shared driveway on the side of the maunga, with other residents/neighbours living in houses off that driveway.
“The owners have become increasingly concerned about the tenant’s aggressive, disruptive and threatening behaviours and have applied to have his tenancy ended under the threatening to assault provision,” the decision said.
The property manager says the owner started to raise concerns about Molina a few weeks after his tenancy began.
He engaged in a pattern of disruptive and aggressive behaviour.
His appearance became unkempt, his manner frequently hostile, suspicious and/or confused, and his behaviour inappropriate, the tribunal was told.
He put foul material into the owner’s mailbox almost every day and denied it until he was seen doing so.
He also refused to allow access for scheduled inspections and essential maintenance such as smoke alarm installation.
The tribunal decision said the owners also reported that he was threatening and aggressive when the owner accepted a parcel for him from a courier.
It also said he was aggressive and threatening to neighbours.
The property manager produced evidence that the tenant threatened the owners, and they were so afraid of him they called the police.
Molina argued that there were no justifiable grounds to terminate the tenancy because there were no videos proving he engaged in the conduct complained of.
He says the neighbours dislike him and have made up all the incidents and have conspired with the property owner to terminate his tenancy.
The tribunal’s M. Pollak wrote that Molina’s behaviour during a hearing was not inconsistent with the behaviour he denied perpetrating during the tenancy.
“He was overbearing, over-talked myself and the other party and was aggressive to me and the other party. It was a challenge to keep the tenant under control for a lot of the hearing,” Pollak wrote in the decision.
“The number of neighbours that have not only experienced these threats of assault and aggressive conduct but have reported them to the police has satisfied me that it is more likely than not the tenant has engaged in the conduct complained of,” Pollak wrote.
Orders were made for Molina to pay the $27 filing fee and to be evicted.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.