October last year, ‘guests’ of my tenant took over and destroyed her life. A pop-up party of 200 was arranged on a Friday and illegal drugs and alcohol were sold and consumed.
The next day Police threatened to charge and arrest me if I entered the property, citing issues of tenant privacy though she had fled with her two young children, and the Tenancy Act allowed my entry.
The night before I had stood guard with a mate, seeking to disperse the rapidly-growing crowd. We left when menaced on each side by two gangs of about 10. At that stage there were two women and about 25 young men at the house. Not your normal party. Police did not attend quickly as requested two days earlier by myself and neighbours. We could see what was about to ensue.
On the Saturday, the Police reprimanded me in front of the perpetrator, who, emboldened, proceeded with a smaller ice party for 30 with his associates on the Sunday.
Terrified neighbours and I had notified the Police. Again, Police held the line that it was a civil matter. Police had issued a case number against which they failed to lodge the mounting evidence of the problem being called in to their radio room.
The ‘guests’ were successfully evicted immediately on the Wednesday by my swift action in the Magistrates Court on Tuesday. In the interim I learned that another party was planned for the Thursday!
The story broke in the Examiner on the Saturday, quoting the Launceston Inspector for Uniform with his and (his Sergeant’s) repeated advice that I was not allowed to enter and that it was a civil matter.
Disposed syringes were visible from the footpath, and the fetid acetone, urine odour associated with ice permeated the whole house for months. A constable had entered the property on one of those evenings, and not initiated any further action. One Acting Sergeant had offered to support me in the hearing, but there was no Police presence in the Court.
The unpublished photographs held by the Examiner’s staff photographer show the terrifying, chaotic damage that had been wreaked. The improbable destruction of their own furniture is frightening to view.
A thorough complaint to Police
I made a thorough complaint to Police in the spirit of avoiding such events recurring. In their wisdom Police appointed the same Inspector to investigate himself and his Commander exonerated them of any failure of duty. The subsequent Ombudsman’s report did likewise after discussions with Police, insisting that ‘it was a civil matter’. The ensuing Integrity Commission repeated that finding and pleaded a shortage of resourcing and other priorities.
A month earlier the vagrants’ visits were intermittent and I had threatened eviction. The tearful and frightened tenant had assured me she could get them to leave and get back on top of things. She sought my assistance. That same day I expressed my concerns over her and children’s safety to Child Protection and their appointed case manager, the local Anglicare office that supplied bond assistance and the tenant’s treating doctor. In that month none had followed up with her, and afterwards advised that she had not contacted them.
She and her infant children sought refuge in a women’s shelter on the Saturday. Another party was paying her rent as if her.
Jack ( Comments HERE ) is right … we are failing these individuals. I’ve heard now a year later that she has lost her children and is now homeless and interstate.
Moreover, countless young people, some underage, were exposed to this dangerous situation, while the whole street watched on … frightened themselves.
The tenant was thoroughly vetted and healthy when she arrived. She took great care to make a home for her family, and maintained a high-level of communication with me. In hindsight I would still have let the property to her.
She lives as a shadow of her former self. I don’t know what else I might have done, but I do know that the community expects more of its government agencies. A quick quizzing of Constables on alcohol testing recently confirmed my fears that they still did not know under what circumstances I might have entered, and thought again it was a civil matter.
The late Councillor Jeremy Ball had visited the property and was enormously concerned at the extent of the problem in Launceston. He would’ve helped coordinate some preventative action. I remain prepared to.
*A Landlord is known to the Editor
