Kirwan family given 24 hours notice to leave ‘unliveable’ rental deemed ‘unsafe’ by a builder
A Townsville family of five was given 24 hours notice to leave their home of six years, after claiming for years the property was “unliveable.”
A family says they were given just 24 hours to leave their rental despite six years of complaints regarding unsafe building defects falling on deaf ears.
Mother-of-three Amily Hess received the news last week that her family had until midnight Tuesday to leave their unit in Kirwan, one day after the building was described as “unsafe” by an independent building inspector.
Ms Hess said the family has lived with dozens of issues, including fences falling apart and cracks spreading across the house.
She said the damage was reported to the landlord when they moved in in 2019.
The family, which had struggled to find a home amid the region’s tight rental market, agreed to move in despite the poor condition of the place.
“It was a roof over our heads, and so we weren’t homeless during that hard time,” she said.
It was compounded when the family was forced to deal with mouldy, ant-infested carpet as a result of flooding in early 2025.
“They sent someone out to fix the ant problem, but didn’t fix the carpet whatsoever,” she said.
Most concerningly, she said, was the ceiling in the unit’s parking garage, which collapsed while two of her children were playing nearby.
“When we noticed it was starting to come down, I put a report in,” she said.
“An actual builder literally said it’s unsafe to be in here, and then two days later it came down.”
Ms Hess said the troubles didn’t end there, and for the final three weeks before the family was asked to move, they were living without airconditioning in the main living room.
“I’ve been without aircon for three weeks with two kids with diabetes, living in a bedroom trying to keep cool,” she said.
“I’ve never met the owners of this place, I don’t blame them, I don’t think they know the whole situation that’s going on.”
Ms Hess said the emotion got to her when she had to tell her children they needed to leave home.
“I had to tell them we need to move, we have to get our stuff we have to go,” she said.
The family fortunately has Ms Hess’ mother in law’s home to move into for the time being, but she said it’s only a temporary solution.
Ms Hess and her family were due to move out in January when the lease ended
Coral Sea Property Services, which manages the rental unit, said it was unable to discuss specifics of the property due to privacy laws, but said it rejects a number of the allegations raised and labelled them as “inaccurate.”
“Coral Sea Property has acted lawfully and responsibly at all times,” a spokesman said.
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Originally published as Kirwan family given 24 hours notice to leave ‘unliveable’ rental deemed ‘unsafe’ by a builder
