Hi all. I'm not a carer, but I don't know if I have any options. I think it's impossible to get someone committed to a psychiatric facility these days, or illegal.
My wife, myself and our 2 y.o. son live in a share house. It's a 3 bedroom house and we rent 2 rooms direct from the owner, who's a friend of mine. The front room is rented via a real estate to a 40 something y.o. woman.
The woman is single, no friends or family ever come to visit, nor does she work. I believe she may have a personality disorder, and/or something else.
She apparently (so she says) did a psychology degree many years ago then did a bachelor of accounting a few years after that. She was supposed to be doing a masters this year but Centrelink has accused her of something of fraud (so she says), so now she is suing Centrelink for intimidation and fraud. Her relationship with Centrelink is so bad, she can only legally correspond to them via an ombudsman. All this was revealed by her when she first moved in.
Since then, 8 months have gone by and it's been a real nightmare. The few instances below are not in any chronological order:
She believes everyone is "dodgy" and fraudulent, including us. She says she has a "fraudster list", which we are apparently on.
She says she "knows law" because she did a law unit in her accounting course and now thinks she knows everything and acts like she is a QC or barrister. She applies law to her personal everyday life, and is heard typing away at her computer until 2am, and is constantly bringing up references to law in normal everyday conversations.
The first few months, she believed I was the real owner of the house and that I was pretending to be a tenant. I explained the relationship between myself and the owner to her, but she insisted to my wife that she believes I was being dodgy for taxation purposes. It wasn’t until I had my friend on the phone and I put him on speaker phone that she finally believed I wasn’t the owner.
She believes everyone tries to take advantage of her because she's vulnerable.
She uses the term "abuse" liberally. Anything that she finds that opposes her views is dodgy, intimidating or abusive.
She revealed to my wife that she's suing her mother because she "abused" her twin brother and raised her and her brother “the wrong way".
My son occasionally throws tantrums, so I always put him in his cot for time out, and also to prevent him throwing himself everywhere and head-butting walls. She says that is abuse and threatened to report us to child services. Also when he is tired and I put him to bed for his midday nap, she believes that is also abuse. The last time this happened after a tantrum, she ambushed my wife and blatantly said I was abusing my son. Naturally my wife told her to mind her own business, so she stated my wife was abusive too, and added my wife to her "fraudster list".
She is still in dispute from her last residence over asbestos. Any peeled paint or cement sheeting to her is asbestos, so she filed a case with VCAT.
The current real estate organised a smoke detector technician to check and replace the batteries in the detectors. She claimed he wasn't “kosher” because he didn't give her a copy of the work order that he got her to sign, so she took a photo of it and complained to the real estate, because "she knows contract law". Now the property manager won't deal or talk to her either, and always forward her correspondence to senior management.
Another time, the gas meter guy came to read the meter and took a photo of the reader because it looked old and might need replacing. Unfortunately, the meter is under her bedroom window, so she naturally freaked out, but hesitated to call the police, and bombarded me with questions as to why he would take photos, etc. She ended up complaining to the gas company, writing emails back and forth.
All 3 bedrooms in the house are lockable by key. Yesterday after working, my wife unlocked my son's room when she got home after picking our son up from day-care. Tenant noticed that the key was still in the lock and asked my wife why she locks his room for, because it "only has toys in it", which isn't the case. My wife said it was none of her business and that we always lock it since she moved in. Tenant then accused/asked my wife if we were conducting a criminal activity or storing drugs in our son’s room.
She regards herself as a “foodie” and finds weird recipes that use “natural” bacteria found in the home, and makes starter-culture for stuff like sour-dough bread and sour-dough pancakes. Problem is that previous tenants have had campylobacter (causes bali-belly), so numerous times she’s heard running to the toilet every 5-10 minutes with explosive diarrhoea. I am starting to think she’s in the past eaten something harmful and it’s affected her brain and rationale. I’m also worried that my son may get the bug from her and end up in hospital with gastroenteritis.
Fortunately my friend, the owner, got her issued with a notice to vacate (eviction) - 120 days’ notice without reason, which is the most legal way to do so, but must be gone by her end of lease date. This allows her to leave early without penalty (paying out the remainder of the lease), but because it doesn't state that "word for word" and no law references, she is staying put until the end of her lease.
My wife & I have had enough and want her out ASAP. Everyone in the street has spoken to her at some stage and all agree that there's definitely something wrong with her. She thinks she is normal and that she doesn't need to seek help of any kind and that we're the ones that need help.
As I mentioned earlier, the list goes on & on. I would like to hear others’ thoughts and suggestions. Is there any legal way of forcing her to get help or be helped?
Emergency, police & ambulance (24 Hrs)
Connect with a lifeline crisis supporter (24 Hrs)
Suicide callback service (24 Hrs)
Kids helpline (24 Hrs)
13 YARN