Embattled National MP Sam Uffindell was put on notice for living in one of North Dunedin's filthiest flats, described as a haven for vermin and disease by health inspectors.
Then third-year University of Otago student Sam Uffindell in the kitchen of his environmentally hazardous Dundas St flat in 2004. The drain visible outside the back door previously poured toilet waste into the back yard Photo: Otago Daily Times / Gerard O'Brien
The Dundas St flat, inhabited by Uffindell and five other male students in 2004, prominently displayed a coat hook with women's underwear hanging from it.
A student-led movement aimed at tackling sexual violence has "highly condemned" the display of underwear.
Uffindell was stood down from the party's caucus this week after a woman he flatted with in Dunedin in 2003 told RNZ he was an aggressive bully who once pounded on her locked bedroom door, screaming obscenities, until she fled through her window.
It has since emerged Uffindell's Dundas St flat the following year was visited by a Dunedin City Council health inspector three times while he and his flatmates competed for the title of Dunedin's filthiest flat in a competition organised by a now defunct website.
The house was considered a health hazard by then council environmental health inspector Judy Austin, who raised concerns severe sickness could result from accumulated rubbish which provided an ideal environment for maggots, flies and rats.
In particular, concerns were raised that rat urine could spread leptospirosis, a notifiable disease.
The residents were ordered to tidy up within a week or risk having contractors being called in their expense.
The lounge of 11 Dundas St, photographed on 27 July, 2004. Photo: Otago Daily Times / Gerard O'Brien
Uffindell, then a third-year arts and commerce student, said their toilet probably had not been cleaned all year but had stopped discharging into their backyard after some plumbing work was done.
He admitted the tenants had not always been responsible but said the flat was substandard.
"This place doesn't demand your respect.
"If it was a nice house we would treat it nice," Uffindell said.
Uffindell's former flatmate in 2003 said the screaming episode was not an isolated incident but part of an ongoing pattern of bullying and abusive behaviour fuelled by drug and alcohol abuse.
Her father, who visited the flat the next day, said the flat had been "completely trashed" and left without a stick of furniture.
The hallway cloak rack of 11 Dundas St when it was occupied by then third-year University of Otago student Sam Uffindell. Photo: Otago Daily Times / Gerard O'Brien
In a statement issued late on Tuesday night, Uffindell admitted his flatting situation fell apart midway through 2003, and two flatmates left, but denied engaging in "intimidatory or bullying" behaviour while studying at the University of Otago.
"When I was a student at Otago I enjoyed a student lifestyle, which included drinking and, at times, smoking marijuana," Uffindell said.
He earlier told media he had been a bully in high school after it emerged he was expelled from Kings College, in Auckland, for beating a younger boarder.
Since the allegations about Uffindell's behaviour in 2003 came to light, he has been stood down from the National Party caucus, pending a two-week investigation into the allegations.
A spokesman for National Party leader Christopher Luxon referred questions about the 2004 flat to the National Party.
The party did not respond by deadline last night and Uffindell did not respond to questions either.
- Additional reporting by RNZ
*This story was first published on the Otago Daily Times website.