It isn’t a pub. It isn’t a night club or a flight center or a supermarket. It is a handicapped man in a five meter long brick box. You would think there was secret nuclear lab or a speak easy hidden in the bushes from the number of people who insist their presence is essential. They say they are merely there to make sure everything is alright. None of them have made an appointment and all of them seem to be associated with the Family and Community Services office at Wyong. According to the Residential Tenancy Act all these unsolicited visitors are breaches of the act. Residential Tenancies Act 2010 No.42 section 50
Tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment(1)
A tenant is entitled to quiet enjoyment of the residential premises without interruption by the landlord or any person claiming by, through or under the landlord or having superior title (such as a head landlord)to that of the landlord.(2)A landlord or landlord’s agent must not interfere with, or cause or permit any interference with, the reasonable peace, comfort or privacy of the tenant in using the residential premises.Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units.t.
Among the scores of people who came to the door and demanded attention were the police. Once after several nights of insomnia the ragged tenant finally managed to get to sleep only to be woken by earth-shaking pounding on the door.
Take a look at the video. This was how it usually went down. It was terrifying for the tenant who often woke in a state of confusion and pain. He did everything he could to avoid people until his mind had cleared but people did not seem to be able to stop coming to his door at odd times and on unexpected missions.
In this case the idea behind sending police was to allow Family and Community Services to build a record of police visits to the apartment. Some time later FaCS felt it had gathered enough evidence of a bad tenant to get him evicted and misrepresented the records of police visits to the tenancy tribunal as it was feared they would. Luckily the tenant had his own lawyer and when it came up they mentioned it then let it drop before the tenant’s lawyer questioned them about why police had been called and they looked like the bullies and abusers they were