A 'tenant from hell' facing her 16th tribunal hearing

Friday, 2 November 2018

Lisa Hanson answered a plea for help on social media from a Tracy Neilson, aka Tracy Peterson, who was in 'desperate need' for a home or room. Her generosity backfired.

Tracy Peterson has twice tried to sue different landlords for $10,000.

She used a positive urine drug test to claim a house was contaminated with methamphetamine. She has racked up nearly $15,000 in unpaid rent.

With her 16th known Tenancy Tribunal hearing coming up this month, landlords have begun calling Peterson 'the tenant from hell'.

Over 10 years, Peterson, who has gone by the names Tracy Thompson and Tracy Neilson, has moved between Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch.

Andrea Elliott, managing director of Dunedin-based Click Property Management, has helped three homeowners through disputes with Peterson, two of which went through the tribunal in 2014 and 2016.

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Over 10 years, Tracy Peterson, who has gone by the names Tracy Thompson and Tracy Neilson, has moved between Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch.

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Elliott said the 47-year-old 'preyed on private landlords' unfamiliar with the Residential Tenancies Act.

Maurice King is the most recent. He rented his Bishopdale, Christchurch home to Peterson after she came to the house viewing with two children and a 'drama story'. King believed the children never lived there with her.

She needed a roof over their heads and told him she 'had been looking for a place for ages'.

He took pity. He let her move in before he knew her surname. The complaints started almost immediately.

'Within the first week she was saying 'you've got mould in the house and it's on the walls' … I said that was a load of crap.

Maurice King is the most recent landlord to take a dispute with Peterson to the Tenancy Tribunal. He's claiming $1257 in rent arrears.

'Then she started going on about the tenancy side of things, that I hadn't lodged [the bond]. I said 'you know why I haven't lodged it, because I've got no paperwork. I don't even know what your surname is and I can't do a thing'.'

Peterson stopped paying the $400-a-week rent, King said. At a Tenancy Tribunal hearing in Christchurch last week, he told the adjudicator she owed $1257.

'She's just the tenant from hell,' he said after the hearing. 'She [was] just a home-stayer, just squatting in my house and making out she's renting it.'

Peterson counter claimed. She told the hearing she wanted exemplary damages; that she wanted to leave because King was harassing her by turning up at the house.

The tribunal hearing was adjourned and will resume this month. When contacted, Peterson said she would not comment on her case with King, nor the previous 15 disputes.

She said she knew 'quite a few landlords' who would 'only have good things to say', but provided no names.

'ALL I DID WAS HELP HER'

Lisa Hanson thought she might have to pay Peterson $10,000 after she was taken to the tenancy tribunal, but the adjudicator found Hanson rented her home out of generosity and Peterson suffered no harm. The stress affected Hanson's children, Hayley, Kyla and Jessica.

In 2016, Lisa Hanson answered a plea for help on social media from a Tracy Neilson, who was in 'desperate need' for a home or room. Hanson had a recently-renovated self-contained cottage that would be vacant until her parents could move in.

It was a casual arrangement. Peterson stayed 87 days. Days after moving out, she took Hanson to court. She wanted $10,000, claiming harassment, failure to lodge her bond with Tenancy Services and failing to provide repayment receipts.

'I was blown away. All I did was help her … Her whole stay was just her playing us and getting ammunition against us,' said Hanson, who told the adjudicator Peterson was drip-feeding the bond money and declined receipts.

The tribunal ordered Hanson to pay Peterson $3.

The adjudicator found Hanson had not followed the law, but had rented her home out of generosity and Peterson suffered no harm from the experience. They said it would be 'perverse' if Hanson was penalised.

TENANT WITH A PATTERN

Peterson lived in this cottage on Hanson's property. When she moved out, she tried to claim $10,000 in compensation.

Stuff spoke to eight landlords who faced Peterson in the tenancy court. Their stories were similar.

Many of the damages awarded over the years are for what landlords might expect: Rent arrears, carpet and vinyl to be replaced, and holes in walls.

Then there are the claims Peterson herself lodged – the bizarre, unrealistic and what one tribunal adjudicator called 'fanciful'.

At least once, Peterson attended Tenancy Tribunal hearings for two properties in the space of a week. Available records show 16 hearings for 10 properties since September 2008.

The sum of tribunal orders against her is more than $14,500 – not including the thousands of bond dollars awarded to landlords.

Property owners who won their tribunal cases said they received piecemeal repayments from Peterson, or nothing at all.

For her claims against landlords, usually for compensation and 'exemplary damages', she has been awarded $417, according to documents Stuff has obtained.

Four adjudicators noted complaints she was harassed. One was upheld.

Maurice King took pity on Tracy Peterson, who said she and two children needed a roof over their heads. Within a week, the complaints started.

For another property, she wanted $680 for water damage to items left in a leaky garage. Peterson hit a snag when she admitted she was earlier told about the leak. She also claimed mould was a problem. The adjudicator ruled that was likely due 'to the living arrangements of the tenant'.

At a house in Heidelberg, Invercargill, it was mould again. Peterson tried to claim $2400 in lost wages due to ill health.

'These [ill health] claims lacked any foundation at all and indeed the tribunal considers them to be entirely fanciful,' the adjudicator found.

BLAMING THE METH TEST

Champagne Homes property manager Yvonne Parker has been in the business for 20 years. She says she has never come across anyone quite like Peterson.

The firm took her to the tribunal over nearly $2500 of rent in arrears for a Linwood, Christchurch home.

To counter, Peterson claimed the property was contaminated by meth and making her ill.

Lisa Hanson says she was 'blown away' by Peterson's actions.

Peterson used a pharmacy-purchased testing kit and found traces of meth in her urine. When she shared the results with Champagne Homes, they tested every room except for the toilet, walk-in wardrobe and hall.

'When that failed … she started going on about mould. This is a house that was built in 2008. The year previous [to Peterson moving in], it was completely renovated,' Parker said.

The adjudicator was 'satisfied' there was no meth contamination in the home.

At the hearing, Peterson told the adjudicator Champagne Homes was running a 'smear campaign' against her.

Peterson told Stuff she knew of 'four or five previous tenants' with grievances against Champagne Homes. Again, she did not provide names.

PETERSON CLAIMS 'FANCIFUL'

One previous Invercargill landlord claims she is still owed $2300 for a property she rented to Peterson 10 years ago. Peterson made a $10,000 compensation claim, but was instead ordered to pay nearly $3000 for carpet damage, cleaning, a hole in the wall and rent arrears.

'To this day I'm still heavily out of pocket because I just got sick and tired of going to court to try and get the money,' the woman said. 'The only positive thing I can honestly say is, from that point as a landlord, it was one helluva learning curve.'

CRIMINAL PAST

Peterson's financial fleecing has extended beyond private property owners. In 2015, she admitted to nearly $22,000 in benefit fraud, according to the Otago Daily Times (ODT).

She was convicted of obtaining by deception and five counts of dishonestly using a document after falsely stating she was not in a relationship while receiving a benefit.

Two years earlier, Peterson was convicted with unlawfully possessing a knife in public and stealing a Toyota Corolla worth $3400.

Last year, there was 'bad blood' between Peterson and a woman she would drive towards 'at pace' before twice making a throat-slitting gesture and threatening to kill her, the ODT reported. She maintained her innocence when found guilty at a judge-alone trial.