Landlady’s shock damage bill after horror find in rental

An Aussie landlady is still reeling after a horror find in her rental, with the damage bill now more than double original fears.

An Aussie landlady is traumatised after a horror find of maggots, poo and trashing of her rental, with the damage bill now more than double expectations.

She walked into stomach-churning ‘destruction’ inside her property after her Toowoomba tenant fled with the damage so bad that assessors were not allowed to go in until it was made safer. “Insurance assistance was declined because of safety concerns for the staff during the assessment” - and when they finally managed to go in, the cost was extensive.

Her initial expectations were it would cost around $30,000, but it was much worse than that, she said, escalating dramatically as they worked their way through the property - with the recovery taking a whopping nine months, almost as long as it takes to build a new home.

The trash found in one of the bedrooms.

Before and after they removed just the rubbish from the laundry before the proper work could begin.

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Around $7,000 alone went on just moving the trash out of the home and into a skip – over 80 bins worth of rubbish that had been left behind. “A professional cleanup team, wearing protective gear was called in to deal with the extreme mess inside,” she said.

She said thankfully her insurer Terri Sheer paid $70,000 for the recovery of the rental property, bringing it up to scratch but she is still out of pocket by thousands.

She had rented out the house for $485 a week with the bond at $1,900 – needless to say the bond was not returned. She has not received any funds from the tenant for the damage bill and is currently pursuing her through the QCAT – the Queensland equivalent of a small claims tribunal - one and a half years later.

Maggots and cat poo were found even when they looked at the oven.

A 20 cubic metre skip bin was needed to get the first load of rubbish out.

She told The Courier-Mail that she would never rent a whole house to a single family again – and has stuck to her word, renting out the property as a rooming house for separate individuals.

She said the sight of her property in such a condition was traumatic for her and “too extreme”.

“The maggots. The defecation. Used women’s sanitary pads everywhere,” she said.

After the initial clean-up process removing trash.

“If you’re just dirty or messy, it is not to this stage. This is too much. This kind of destructive behaviour makes landlords not want to continue to advertise property in market for rent as the emotional and physical cost to fix is too much.”

The oven, kitchen cupboards and airconditioning units all had maggots, animal faeces and urine through them needing to be replaced.

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Originally published as Landlady’s shock damage bill after horror find in rental