When the bailiff knocks . . .

THE bailiff’s knock came at 11am.

Within 90 minutes, Bart Kropelnicki, who has a traumatic brain injury, was homeless and with no idea where he would spend the coming cold Wellington night.

Police were called in after a bailiff and Wellington City Council staff were unable to convince him to leave his Taranaki St council flat. His final eviction notice arrived the day before.

‘‘I was a successful person and, in a year-and-a-half, I’m on the streets,’’ he said outside, surrounded by the possessions he could carry out, and with his remaining $5 in his pocket.

Many more possessions – the house was packed, with barely room to move – were left inside for the council to pack up and store.

The council is sticking by its decision, saying eviction was a last resort, and safety had become a serious concern in the cluttered home.

Spokesman Richard MacLean said Kropelnicki had been on a fixed-term tenancy that expired on August 3. After he had refused to leave, the case went through the Tenancy Tribunal.

Kropelnicki had been told many times he had to leave, and should have been under no impression he could stay, MacLean said.

The flat is next door to the council’s Arlington Apartments, which were all due to be redeveloped soon, meaning many of his neighbours would also be getting moved on.

‘‘The other problem was there were dangerous levels of hoarding going on in the property.’’

The mess became so bad that Kropelnicki had to enter up a ladder and through a window for a while, because could not open.

There had also been problems with rent payments being missed, MacLean said. ‘‘We evict people as a last resort.’’

The council was willing to offer Kropelnicki another flat, but it would come with strict conditions that he got social support so he did not create a similar hoarding problem.

The council was contacting his church and other support groups to make sure he had a roof over his head last night, when the temperature was expected to drop to 3 degrees Celsius.

Kropelnicki’s brain injury, which he said was diagnosed as traumatic brain injury, or TBI, stemmed from a series of concussions, including one when he was badly beaten up on Valentines Day in 2014.

It left him barely able to care for himself. He remains unsteady on his feet, and was disorganised, which he claimed was the cause of his hoarding. He volunteered the information that he had missed rent payments but said that, with the help of his church, he was no longer in arrears.

His lease ran out, but he said he was told he could stay on till February 2016. On August 3, council staff turned up for a flat inspection and then told him ‘‘the deal is off’’ and he would have to move out, he said.

He got home on Monday afternoon to find an eviction notice taped to his door. It gave him till 11am yesterday to leave.

While police were upstairs talking Kropelnicki into leaving, a council worker was changing the locks on his front door.

As Kropelnicki left, he shook the hands of two police officers, and thanked them for their kind treatment.

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