A Kāinga Ora tenant who repeatedly threatened staff while frightening and causing distress to other tenants has had her tenancy terminated. 

Tui-Aroha Noble Wood was renting at a Northcote address in Auckland when the trouble started in January this year. 

An agency staffer said Wood had walked “straight up to my face and started swearing at me, and then said, “I will f****n smash you, and that would be self-defence”. 

The anti-social behaviour continued, Kāinga Ora having to show the Tenancy Tribunal three incidents had occurred over a three-month period. 

One of the anti-social behaviour notices did not specify an approximate time of the incident and was dismissed. 

However, the tribunal considered and accepted Wood had repeatedly breached her obligation not to interfere with the reasonable peace and comfort of the agency’s other tenants. 

A second incident of anti-social behaviour in February showed a verbal and physical altercation occurred between Wood and her partner in common spaces of the complex where neighbours and visitors to the building witnessed the incident “feeling alarmed, distressed and in breach of their quiet enjoyment”. 

In March an incident involving yelling, swearing and abuse in a confrontation between Wood and an unidentified male was reported. A video recording of the incident was provided. 

Then in May, Wood was reported to have exhibited aggressive behaviour at a Kāinga Ora office, striking the reception glass a few times. Subsequently, an altercation occurred with her partner in the car park area, resulting in a “significant disturbance to the peace, comfort, and quiet enjoyment of residents”. 

Two days later, she turned up in an agitated state and yelling, handing a kitchen knife to staff over the office counter and claiming she had it on her for self-defence against her partner. 

Wood, at a recent Tenancy Tribunal hearing, said she suffers from borderline personality disorder and misophonia and was in the middle of a bad episode at the time of the first incident. 

She said she was just asking for help and did not know who the staff member was, did not recall threatening the staffer, but went and apologised to them after the incident. 

In explanation of the further anti-social notices, Wood said she had a very volatile relationship, with a “toxic boyfriend”, which had now ended, and a protection order is in place. 

She said she was trying to protect and help a young boy during the March incident. 

In relation to the fourth notice, Wood said she had a knife in her hand because she had been cooking and had rushed out of her unit with her partner’s bags which she was putting outside. 

She said she used the knife to cut the handles to her partner’s bags. 

The tribunal decision said the explanation for the possession of the knife was at odds with the explanation given to the landlord’s staff recorded in the notice. 

The tribunal found the breaches were serious and had been persistent and repeated over a period of five months. 

They had involved behaviour which had “frightened and caused distress” to the landlord’s other tenants and its employees. 

“The behaviour has been aggressive and threatening involving abusive language, a threat to the landlord’s staff member, striking the reception area’s glass and carrying a knife. 

It said while the tenant has psychological issues, she remains responsible for her actions “especially as they impact on innocent bystanders such as other tenants in the complex and the landlord’s staff”. 

“Termination for such repeated breaches over such a long period is a proportionate response. The landlord has obligations to its other tenants, many of whom are equally unwell or vulnerable, to protect them from this kind of disturbing behaviour.” 

Wood was told to vacate the residence by June 6. 

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.