A man who threatened to burn down his public housing unit and abused government staff while complaining about a noisy neighbour has won an appeal to remain in the home.
Steven Kazmar, who lives in government housing in Amaroo, took the commissioner for social housing to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal and successfully appealed a previous decision to terminate his tenancy.
In a decision published on Thursday, acting presidential member Daniel Stewart found that two warning notices sent to Mr Kazmar had not complied with the relevant section of the Residential Tenancies Act.
The notices specified incidents of threatening, intimidating, harassing, or abusive behaviour but did not note the conduct was against the lessor.
Mr Kazmar has a history dating back to 2020 of making "threatening and harassing" complaints about noise coming from his neighbour's apartment which prevented him from sleeping. His neighbour is also a public housing tenant.
These complaints escalated to "intimidation and abuse" of Housing ACT staff and his neighbours.
In the ACT Magistrates Court in January 2023, Mr Kazmar was sentenced for threatening to kill the woman who managed his unit and calling her an "ugly, fat cow".
He was handed a four-month suspended sentence and 12 months of good behaviour.
Thursday's published tribunal decision states a worker from the Environmental Protection Agency recorded a bass reading of music heard in Mr Kazmar's unit that equalled the maximum volume allowed for outdoor concerts in the ACT.
Mr Kazmar paid $2400 to have a sound insulation installed but this "had little effect".
He applied to transfer his accommodation and was placed on the High Needs Allocation register, but he said it "is my understanding that even if you are on the High Needs register, finding new housing can take up to three years".
In October 2023, Mr Kazmar emailed Housing ACT saying he was going to "deal with this bullshit again and would burn the building down ... he would go to the petrol station to get fuel and burn the unit".
He threatened to "burn the apartment down as he cannot handle the noise" and said he had walked to a service station to purchase a jerry can of fuel.
Shortly afterwards, he contacted the lessor again to inform them he had broken a window by throwing a frying pan because he was frustrated with the noise.
While Mr Kazmar was successful in his appeal, the commissioner can still make another application to terminate his lease.
