Is she the victim or is she the tenant from hell? Amy Barlow is a slip of a woman but she won't be messed with. And she's refusing to be 'monstered” out of her rental home.

For their part, the property managers say she's 'used all her excuses” and is making it impossible for them to be conciliatory and understanding. And they say she's in their debt.

A family facing eviction - Amy Barlow.

It's a typical, bitter ‘he says, she says' dispute between landlord and tenant and one which the Ministry of Justice Tenancy Tribunal will have to unravel.

'I am a model tenant,” insists Amy. 'The property is clean and tidy and the rent's up to date. This is not about the property, I feel it's personal and I won't budge.”

The ogre, the alleged ogre, in this case is the landlord and property manager, Tauranga Rentals. They say it has everything to do with the property.

'Amy Barlow? We only know her as Amy Tame. She's in rent arrears of $930.44,” says Tauranga Rentals principal Daniel Lusby. And that is legal grounds for eviction.

This is just one of 20,000 similar cases adjudicated each year by the Tenancy Tribunal – the Ministry of Justice constituted body set up to settle issues landlords and tenants have been unable to settle.

This case has been festering for months. There's been give-and-take on both sides without resolution. So it's now been added to the tribunal's case load.

Amy's a 36-year-old solo mother with a landlord who wants rid of her.

'But I know my rights,” says Amy. 'I've done my research, I've got my case together and I'm fighting back. I will not roll over. Not yet.”

And when her landlord slapped her with an eviction notice recently it fuelled tensions and Amy counter-punched. She got herself lawyered up, filed with the Tenancy Tribunal and is now waiting for 'her day in court.” That's next Wednesday.

But someone is going to lose – one side could end up out of pocket and the other out of home. So who do you believe? And how do you get to the bottom of it?

'Well, there are always two sides to any story,” says Baywide Community Law Service managing solicitor Beverley Edwards. And this one is no different.

'However, the inequity of the relationship demands landlords and property managers behave with objective professionalism when dealing with vulnerable tenants.”

And Beverley says the current under-supply of suitable rentals in Tauranga further exacerbates the inequity.

Beverley and SunLive were at Amy's Merivale home when the bailiff was due to execute the eviction notice. But she got a stay of proceedings until the Tribunal hearing. She can stay put… for now.

This is a tenancy issue, but according to Amy it came to a head over a fence – a fence between Amy's property and the neighbouring school that teetered dangerously, both ways she says, after a storm.

'It would have killed one of my children if it fell this way or a schoolkid if it fell the other way,” she says.

'I understand she believed there was a danger,” says Daniel. 'But there wasn't. It would have fallen into the school and I can't understand why it took so long to get the right authority from the school to get it fixed.”

But Amy says she took it upon herself to force action on the fence. 'I notified them I would be withholding $60 of my rent each week until the fence was fixed. Three weeks later they had men on the job.”

'The fence was an excuse,” says Daniel. 'And Amy withheld rent for nine weeks between September 25 and November 27, 2014. That's $540, which is part of her arrears.”

'I owe them nothing,” says Amy. 'And I won't reimburse for the shortfalls because for nine months my children didn't have a yard to play in and I had to foot the bills for their entertainment.”

On other occasions Daniel says they'd 'show Amy leniency” with her rent. 'She'd catch up and fall behind again. And if you can't talk and be reasonable then the tribunal is the only option.”

Daniel says that's an unfortunate last resort because a tribunal decision can be a black mark against a tenant when they seek alternative accommodation.

Beverley, a community solicitor, goes into bat for all tenants once more.

'The current tenancy laws aren't protective enough of a deserving tenant who is being harassed by a spiteful or vindictive owner/property agent,” she says.

'One simply has to go on social media to get a real sense of the desperation exploited tenants in Tauranga are experiencing.”

The Tenancy Tribunal will get a real sense of Amy's desperation at a two-hour hearing set for Wednesday.