Rental crisis: Tenants from hell destroy Qld woman’s property

A South East Queensland landlady has told of the feral nightmare she walked into after her tenants – a couple with three young children – trashed her house and left it covered in faeces, fleeing while still owing $5500 in rent and causing a $10,000 clean-up bill.

A foul smell alerted a Moreton Bay region landlord to call the police and ask them to check inside her property, afraid she would find something dead inside.

“Lisa Williams” would later discover her tenants had destroyed and abandoned her house, leaving it covered it in faeces.

Ms Williams, who has chosen not to use her real name, owns a home in Burpengary which she privately rented to a couple with three young children last December.

She became worried when they started to miss rent payments and failed to show up to several inspection appointments.

After an “atrocious” smell started seeping from the house last week she decided to call the police, expecting the worst.

Ms Williams found her floors covered in faeces.

The shocking state of Ms Williams’ toilet.

When she walked inside, Ms Williams found the house trashed, floors splattered in faeces, mounds of rubbish, paraphernalia, and “god knows what else”.

“The smell was absolutely atrocious,” Ms Williams said.

“There were holes in doors everywhere, decking boards had been split, paint was spilt all over the timber floors inside, skirting boards were ripped off.

“I also found s***loads of letters saying they owed SPUR debt and Energex bills.

“There were bongs in there, it was full on.”

A couch had been torn apart and rubbish littered the floors.

A tar-like substance on Ms Williams' bench top.

Ms Williams says she’s at least $10,000 out of pocket after the ordeal, but was mostly shocked at the lack of respect for her property.

“My initial thought was, there’s so many people complaining about people not being able to get rental and yet this is how mine was treated,” she said.

“And there’s been so many headlines of people not being able to afford a rental, I just couldn’t believe it.

“The reason why I went private was because I’m a single mum and I needed as much money as possible to get more things done on the house while covering the mortgage.

“Now the missed rent is $5,500 but I’m at a $10,000 loss at least, maybe even $20,000, there’s just so many things that need doing.”

Ms Williams said food was also left lying around throughout the house.

The family left behind many possessions, unpaid bills and various ID cards.

She’s now “working her butt off” to get the house back in order and will soon rent the home to the people helping her clean it up.

“I’ve really seen the worst and then the best in people,” Ms Williams said.

“This lovely lady Mirrandah Morris has a cleaning business and she’s staying here and helping me clean the place for free, I’ve recommended her to everyone.

“I’ve also made an arrangement with a man called Damien, he’s going to put his daughter and her family in here and paint the place for me and I’m just giving them a reduced rent for a bit, like $400 a week.

“It’s still fairly stinky, it’s feral really but I’m working my butt cheeks off so they can move in a soon as possible.”