Dead animals found stuffed in freezer of regional South West Qld property destroyed by tenants from hell

The landlords of a southwest Queensland rental property made the stomach-churning discovery of dead cats in a freezer after a months-long legal battle to evict their ‘horror tenants’. WATCH THE VIDEO.

A regional Queensland landlord has been forced to live out every homeowner’s nightmare, discovering dead cats in a freezer and $100,000 in damage to their home after a months-long legal battle to evict “horror tenants”.

It was the first time *Emma had listed the property for rent privately through social media, after a bad experience with a rental agency saw her take matters into her own hands.

Emma said she had no reason to hold any concerns about the new tenants, who despite never meeting before renting the house seemed to pass reference checks with flying colours.

After moving into the residency in January, within six months the cracks began to show and the alarm bells rang when Emma claims they started missing weekly rental payments.

Emma said this led them to arrange an inspection of the property, unprepared for what they would discover.

A photo taken inside the property at the six-month inspection. Photo: contributed

“The house had been destroyed, they had three dogs and I counted about 15 cats (at the property),” she said.

“It just stunk so bad there were mice running around everywhere.”

The private lease agreement had stipulated approval for the tenants to have one cat and a dog at the property.

Emma said despite trying to arrange secondary inspections in this time, the tenants continued to refuse to let them through the property even while in the company of Queensland police.

This inspection would spark a four-month long legal battle which finally came to a head in December, when the tenants were ordered by QCAT to vacate the property by December 11.

Emma claims the tenants refused to leave on this date and were removed from the property by police on December 16.

“It was a very confronting experience, they kept trying to come back to the property to collect things and were yelling at us that we were c--ts,” she said.

“The house is basically unrepairable, there’s easily $100,000 worth of damage and cleaning.”

Emma said they had prepared to find the house in an uninhabitable state, yet never imagined just how bad that state would be.

The property was located in an uninhabitable state, with garbage, clothes and other items found strewn across the house. Photo: Supplied

The foul odour emitting from the property was so strong, Emma said they couldn’t enter without wearing gas masks and biohazard safety gear.

“The smell was unbearable, we were expecting it to be bad but we definitely weren’t expecting this bad,” she said.

Emma said when the tenants eventually vacated they had taken a number of animals along with them, yet had left a number of cats behind.

At least nine cats were removed by animal management from the property, leaving a family member to make a stark discovery when they inspected fridge and freezer appliances left at the property.

Emma estimates more than 30 cats and one dog were located deceased inside the appliances, some having been wrapped in clothes and others in garbage bags.

WARNING: GRAPHIC. It's estimated more than 30 cats were located deceased in freezers at the property. Photo: Supplied

A Western Downs Regional Council spokeswoman said council’s animal management team was aware of the incident.

“Council is aware of an incident involving the discovery of numerous cats, alive and deceased, at a residential property at Chinchilla,” the spokeswoman said.

“Council’s animal management team are assisting animal welfare authorities and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

“The incident is currently under investigation.”

In a statement the DAF confirmed that they were informed of the matter by WDRC, however a spokesperson said “as the matter is currently under investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further”.

Queensland Police Service has also been contacted about the incident.

*For privacy reasons the property owners names have been changed.

Originally published as Dead animals found stuffed in freezer of regional South West Qld property destroyed by tenants from hell