Woman with autism intimidated by fellow tenants and lease terminated

March 2022

Amelie* is a woman living with autism. She is a tenant of social a housing accommodation provider. Amelie said she felt preyed upon, socially isolated and vulnerable to harassment and intimidation from other tenants because of her disability.

Amelie requested to transfer to different accommodation and was placed on a transfer request list. However, Amelie’s accommodation provider later removed Amelie from their transfer list and began to process a termination of Amelie’s lease. 

Amelie made a complaint of disability discrimination to ADNSW.

The accommodation provider denied unlawfully discriminating against Amelie. They said they removed Amelie from their transfer request list and began to terminate Amelie’s lease because they were responding to multiple complaints from other tenants about Amelie’s alleged anti-social behaviour and her breach of the Residential Tenancy Agreement.

At conciliation, the accommodation provider agreed to reinstate Amelie onto the transfer request list and help her find suitable accommodation, support Amelie’s request to have a companion animal and commit to appropriate staff customer service training. Amelie accepted this which, resolved the complaint.

*Name has been changed to protect the privacy of the individual.