Tenancy terminated over assault threats
A man who threw plastic chairs at his frightened neighbours, before letting off a gas bottle in the shared hallway and shouting "boom, boom, you can all die", has lost his Salvation Army flat.
Quinton Rihari could not be reached for the Tenancy Tribunal's hearing, where the Salvation Army sought to terminate the tenancy on his central Dunedin flat, saying he had threatened to assault other tenants in the complex.
According to the tribunal's recently released decision, Rihari received written warnings about his behaviour at his Thomas Burns St flat on three occasions.
The first was on December 27 last year, when he broke a painting in the corridor during a fight. It began at 3.30am and lasted for an hour and a half.
Then, in February, he verbally abused tenants when they asked him to turn his music down.
Two months later, on April 14, the Salvation Army says Rihari became angry and threw plastic chairs off a shared balcony, frightening other tenants.
After returning to his room, Rihari let off a 9kg LPG bottle in the hallway, yelling "boom, boom, you can all die".
Police were called and took Rihari away, but he returned and begin yelling at the other tenants, calling them "narks".
Later that day, he told another tenant he was going to "punch her head in".
Again, police were called and Rihari was taken away.
Under the Residential Tenancies Act, the tribunal can terminate a tenancy if it's satisfied a tenant has engaged in antisocial behaviour on three separate occasions during a 90-day period and received written notice on each occasion.
The decision found that while Rihari received separate notices for each incident, the three incidents spanned 108 days, outside the 90-day period.
Despite this, as the tribunal found Rihari had threatened to harm his neighbours, it agreed to terminate Rihari's tenancy.
By Catherine Hutton
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