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A 54-year-old Christchurch woman who died a week after she was found cold and alone on a freezing New Brighton beach had been evicted from her home just weeks earlier.
Hayley Sutherland was formally evicted from her Union St rental house in New Brighton following a Tenancy Tribunal ruling on June 25.
Sutherland did not attend the hearing, which resulted in an order for her to leave the property.
One month later on July 25 a passerby found Sutherland rough sleeping on the beach near the pier as a polar blast plunged temperatures to -4 deg C overnight.
She alerted police, who attended with an ambulance, but Sutherland refused their assistance.
Detective Senior Sergeant Kelvin Holden said police made a plan to continue welfare checks on her throughout the night. However at 7am the following morning, another passerby found Sutherland on the beach seriously ill.
An ambulance treated her at the scene before taking her to Christchurch Hospital, where she died a week later on August 2.
Her death raised questions about the response from police and Hato Hone St John, including whether other agencies were alerted as her situation deteriorated.
The Tenancy Tribunal found Sutherland had unlawfully prevented the landlords from inspecting the property after they gave notice of an inspection in March 2025.
It found she had also installed a chain and padlock on the front gate without the landlords’ consent, making access difficult.
However, the dispute escalated after the landlords increased the rent in September 2025.
Sutherland continued paying the old amount before stopping rent payments altogether in February 2026.
By the time the case reached the tribunal, she was more than 21 days behind in rent.
The tribunal also found Sutherland had refused to communicate with the landlords for about a year and had questioned whether they actually owned the property.
Even after being provided with evidence of ownership, she continued to dispute their ownership.
The tribunal noted a tenant could not reject a landlord's authority after accepting the tenancy.
The tribunal terminated her tenancy, awarded possession of the property to her landlords and ordered her to pay $7035.14 in rent arrears and other costs, after her $1360 bond was deducted from the amount owing.
The landlords' names were suppressed. Sutherland’s death is now before the Coroner.