'Threatened to smash my face in': Mum of autistic teen struggles with awful noisy neighbours

An Auckland mother says her autistic teenage daughter is being terrorised by noisy neighbours at their Kāinga Ora apartment complex."About six months ago new tenants moved in and have completely flipped our lives upside down," Jamie, who asked to keep her surname private to protect her daughter, said."They play extremely, extremely loud music that vibrates through my entire house. It's 24/7 constant banging, thumping, stomping, late night visitors, dogs barking. They are the most disruptive neighbours we've ever had."Jamie said her daughter had severe noise sensitivity and was now wearing headphones all day to manage the noise."She can't eat properly, she's not sleeping, she stays up all night and sleeps during the day. She's isolated herself to her bedroom."Jamie complained to Kāinga Ora, who visited and spoke to the neighbours, but said this didn't help."Basically I've just been stonewalled. Nothing seems to be changing.""They either need to be issued some sort of warning that's going to stop this, or we need to be moved. They need to realise we can't live in an environment that's hostile to my daughter."In a statement, Kāinga Ora regional director Taina Jones said staff had followed up on Jamie's complaints."We understand Jamie's daughter has autism and can be particularly sensitive to noise."We have taken Jamie's concerns seriously, however, as part of our enquiries we received differing accounts from those involved about when the music has been played, how loud it has been, and the broader circumstances surrounding the complaints."Jones said the neighbours had been reminded of their obligations to be respectful to those around them, and that staff were still investigating Jamie's most recent complaint.Jamie said she had attempted to resolve the issue herself by confronting the neighbours, but this went poorly."I had enough and I went to speak to them, just being very nice and calmly asked them, 'What is this banging? Is there something we can do to stop it?' and they were so hostile, threatened to smash my face in, and the police had to be called," she recounted."It's caused me to not want to leave my home, I'm isolated in my house. I go to step out my door and I've got to look left and right and then sometimes I decide I can't do it and go back inside and shut my door."Jones said Kāinga Ora was aware of that altercation."Everyone has the right to feel safe and comfortable in their home. Our role as a landlord is to establish the facts and deal fairly with all parties involved."Where there is sufficient evidence of disruptive behaviour, we will use the tools available to us under the Residential Tenancies Act to address it. If necessary, that can include taking steps to end a tenancy."