Dr Fiona Graham, whose company owns a Wanaka house deemed dangerous by the district court, has accused the Queenstown Lakes District Council of continuing an eight-year "illegal vendetta" against her in deciding to evict her 20 tenants on Monday.
Dr Graham, who is believed to be overseas and contacted the Otago Daily Times by email yesterday, said, "Everything I have done in the house is absolutely above board and always has been."
She outlined a list of council actions over eight years in relation to 155 Tenby St, a former factory and gymnasium owned by The Wanaka Gym Ltd, and said the council had "made my life an absolute hell".
"It is unbelievable that this should have happened and even more unbelievable that the council should have spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers' money on this illegal vendetta," Dr Graham said.
She had removed a ceiling the council considered a fire danger and replaced it with commercial grade materials, she said, and alleged the council refused to inspect the building before the tenants were evicted.
The ODT forwarded Dr Graham's allegations to the council's acting corporate and planning manager, Roger Taylor, for comment yesterday.
He said the council would not get into a debate with Dr Graham through the media.
The building had been inspected on Monday and remained a fire hazard.
"The safety of the residents has been and continues to be the only thing we are concerned about... She can argue anything else she wants. We were entirely motivated by public safety," Mr Taylor said.
It was within Dr Graham's powers to make sure the property complied with the Resource Management Act and the Building Act and to apply to the court to have the house reoccupied, he said.
The Queenstown District Court last Friday granted an injunction "restraining or preventing the defendant (The Wanaka Gym Ltd) from using and/or occupying the building at 155 Tenby St, Wanaka . . . and/or permitting other persons to use and occupy the building for the purposes of residential activities including sleeping until further order of the court".
It is understood some of the evicted tenants stayed at a Wanaka camping ground on Monday night.
They could not be contacted yesterday.
Lake Hawea Hotel publican John Shea said yesterday he had spoken to one of the tenants and offered the group accommodation but he was not sure if the offer would be taken up.
"It seemed they might have had some things organised," Mr Shea said last night.
