A female resident has been ordered to leave a retirement village in Fremantle, WA, after a long-running battle over her behaviour.
The resident of Tapper Street Mews, an 11-unit village owned and run by Co-operation Housing, will be evicted in April following more than a decade of complaints by other residents as well as several convictions for common assault against a male resident, who took out two restraining orders against her in 2010 and 2019 during an extended feud alleged to have started due to a damaged gardening tool.
According to the case heard by the WA State Administrative Tribunal, Fremantle Police attended the village 18 times between 2011 and 2020, and two petitions signed by all the other residents in 2008 and 2010 called for the resident’s contract to be terminated.
In her decision, Ms K Y Loh of the Tribunal found that the resident had breached her contract, and that resources that could have been better used elsewhere had been devoted to resolving the issue by police, the City of Fremantle, and the village owners.
“I am also satisfied that there has been persistent and wilful breaches of the rules and contract by the resident, and despite the various efforts of the owners involved, these breaches have persisted over the years.
“I find that the resident's behaviour has affected, and continues to affect, the health and well-being (at the worst case) or the peaceful enjoyment (in the best case), of at least some of the residents in the village."
Ms Loh also had “no confidence” in the resident’s capacity to change her behaviour in the foreseeable future.
“Without such fundamental changes, I agree with the owner that the ongoing conflict and impact on the peaceful enjoyment or health and well-being of the other residents will persist into the foreseeable future, which is clearly untenable,” she said.
The resident has been ordered to leave her unit by 13 April 2022; however, the decision was not a complete victory for Co-operation Housing, as it has been ordered to refund her $81,400 under the terms of her contract.