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Violence against tenants

Landlord Violence in Illegal Eviction

How would you feel if you returned home after a hard day at the lecture theatre to find all your belongings had been thrown out of your house and lay strewn about outside fully exposed to the hazards of the Wellington general public and the weather?

This was the scene that confronted Pete, a tenant at the big white boarding house at the bottom of the busy Dixon St. steps, when he returned from work last Friday.

His landlord, a man by the name of Patrick Tohill, had taken advantage of his absence to illegally evict him by ejecting his gear. The landlord was' legally required to give one months written notice of eviction.

In fact, the only warning Pete got was early that morning when the landlord had barged into his room stood over Pete's bed and screamed at to get out.

The reason for this hysterical performance was that Pete was one week behind in his rent. Pete, had been a good tenant for nine months. In the week prior to his eviction, Pete has been working late shifts and not getting home until one in the morning. Consequently, he couldn't get hold of the landlord to pay his rent.

But Tohill's tenants can't afford little slip-ups like this . . . Pete had managed to contact Tenants' Union and two workers raced to the scene to help him replace his scattered belongings in the room.

Half-way through the shifting proceedure, the landlord came pounding down the staircase, a screw-driver held in the 'dagger' position in one hand. He charged towards the tenants' Union workers on the outside balcony, at the last moment dropping the screwdriver in order to land a jarring blow to the jaw of a TU worker. Staggering backwards he narrowly avoided falling backwards down a steep flight of steps. "Get off my property you, filthy tresspassers" Tohill screamed. (As they had been invited there by the tenant the TU people weren't tresspassers).

A short scuffle followed as the landlord attempted to slam the door in their faces. Failing, he ran inside to call the police to get support.

Luck was with the tenant however. Two young cops, as yet uncorrupted by the 'support the establishment' ideology of the police force, turned up and supported the 'forces of right' in their battle. Despite the fact that it had been established that Pete was the rightful tenant, and that the landlords actions were outrageous, it took several hours of arguing and the additional weight of a police sergeant to prevent Tohill from physically molesting Pete as he returned his gear.

It became very obvious that the Sergeant was uncomfortable in his role as protector of the oppressed. On one occassion he said to the landlord "I probably shouldn't say this but I realise the law ties you blokes down too much, but I'm obliged to enforce it" ( A landlord himself perchance?)

The irony of the situation was that if the tenent had called the cops they almost certainly wouldn't have turned up, furthermore if Tenants Union hadn't been there to tell the cops the law (police are almost totally ignorant of tenancy law as it's mainly 'civil' rather than 'criminal') they almost certainly would have sided with the landlord and the tenant would have been out in the cold. It's happened many times before. So this was appearing to be one of the few occasions in the history of tenancy struggles where the law and justice have coincided. Too good to be true you say? You are right. When the TU worker who had been punched in the face tried to lay a complaint of assault with the Sergeant he was told "Go away — the way you people (meaning Tenants' Union) go about things you ask for it". So much for the impartiality of the Law. When the TU worker pointed out that the assault was entirely unprovoked and that it was his statutory duty to take the complaint the Sergeant still refused to take action against the landlord. "Go down to the station if you want to take it any further" he said. The Catch 22 was that when the TU worker did this he was told that the police on the spot should have taken the complaint and consequently they refused to accept it. We shudder to think of the number of people who are unaware of their rights that the cops fuck around in this way. It was only after persistent badgering that the desk constable wrote out a formal complaint.

Violent evictions of this sought are quite common in Wellington. Tenants' union are firmly convinced that the only solution to these landlord outrages is to give people control of their own housing through community ownership of all housing.