Sydney Rental Horror Stories: Shoddy repair jobs, mouldy rooms, syringes and flea infestations

SHODDY repair jobs, mouldy rooms, syringes and flea and slug infestations — welcome to some of Sydney’s most shocking rental properties.

Soraiya Fuda

@SoraiyaFuda

2 min read

December 28, 2015 - 2:53PM

Rental horror: ‘Fleas filled my clothes’

NSW’s 10 worst suburbs to rent
Woman claims she was attacked by ‘millions of fleas’
NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong launches Facebook site

SHODDY repair jobs, mouldy rooms, syringes and flea and slug infestations — welcome to some of Sydney’s most shocking rental properties.

NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong has launched a Facebook page called Rental Horror Stories, which has attracted hundreds of complaints.

Pictures of mushrooms growing from a living room carpet after a leaking roof was left unattended, is just one of the complaints left online.

Another person said she did not have a kitchen floor.

“We lived for quite some time without a proper floor in our kitchen. Our kitchen floor was so rotten a chair went through it,” she said.

“After notifying the landlords their fixity man put a piece of plywood over the section. 4 months later, we finally had some repairs done to the floor, the rotten beams and boards were replaced by gyprock, which did not meet the walls properly, leaving large gaps which let in massive drafts, as well as vermin.”

A man claimed his property had a slug infestation. “I lived in a property on the border of Marrickville and Enmore. Slugs were coming in through the house,” he said.

Rundown NSW properties on the Facebook page Rental Horror Stories. Picture: Facebook

Another man had a similar experience: “We live in a small 1 bed in southern Sydney. Our bathroom had mushrooms growing from the door frame. Slugs come up from the bathroom drain. Cockroaches are everywhere (I’ve been woken up FIVE TIMES by them crawling on my legs/arms/face while sleeping. I cried for hours after each time.”

Leong, who is also the MP for Newtown where most of the complaints derive, urged people to make anonymous claims about their rental properties.

A collapsed roof. Picture: Facebook

Rundown NSW properties on the Facebook page Rental Horror Stories. Picture: Facebook

“In 2016 there’ll be a review of NSW Rental Laws and we’re gathering data for our submission,” she wrote on the Facebook page.

The Daily Telegraph highlighted in September the 10 worst suburbs in NSW to rent with Stanmore, Panania and Newtown topping the list.

For some people, simply inspecting a property proved too much after one Facebook user claimed she was attacked by fleas.

Shoddy electrical. Picture: Facebook

“I once went to inspect a house to rent. The agent gave me the key. I went in the housing walked down the hallway looking into the rooms as I went. I was attacked by a plague of fleas. Millions of them,” she said.

“There were used needles and old clothes and it had been completely untouched since the last tenants left. and they had just left. I knew I was being bitten I was trying to scratch up my legs I ran to the street. the bites were all over me, the fleas filled my clothes,. I had to rip them off in the street and a woman was laughing at me.”