‘Unlivable’: Luxury $840 a week rental horror in luxury Meriton Gold Coast apartment

A young Aussie couple have been living in what is supposed to be a luxury apartment, but they claim all is not what it seems.

A young couple claim the problems at their luxury rental were ignored for years, allowing wind and rain to devastate their apartment and render it “unlivable”.

When ex Tropical Cyclone Alfred hit earlier this month, the pair were left scrambling to save their belongings and had just six hours to find new accommodation.

Will and Kendall Flink, 25 and 26, have been paying $840 to live on the 14th floor at Meriton’s luxury Sundale apartments on the Gold Coast.

Within a month of moving into the plush new place in 2022, they realised that their windows wouldn’t shut properly.

A number of other issues came to light, such as unexplained leaking through the walls and behind the carpet, which was exacerbated whenever it rained.

When they alerted Meriton, who is managing the property, they were given a litany of excuses about why repairs were taking so long, including waiting for parts to arrive from China, with this going on for more than two years.

“All they said to us was take photos of it,” Mr Flink, who is a DJ and also goes by the name Willo, told news.com.au. “They never came and looked at it, not once. We’ve been emailing them from the start.”

So when Cyclone Alfred lashed the coast of Queensland earlier this month, including the Gold Coast, their apartment was flooded and soon become mouldy, smelly and ultimately inhabitable.

In a statement to news.com.au, Meriton said it only managed the buildings and defects were the responsibility of the landlord and owners corporation. They also threatened legal action.

“The allegation that Meriton has taken no action to redress issues alleged to have been raised by residents is false,” the spokesperson said.

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The apartment was still soaked days later.

Mould developed within a few days.

Mr Flink and his partner have been living with windows that won’t fully shut for years, using “creative ways” like rope to keep them closed.

“When we knew the cyclone was coming, we knew what we had done was not going to hold,” he said.

“I zip tied them down and chained them to my desk.”

He also moved his computer, correctly assuming that water would find its way through.

But when the couple hunkered down bracing to weather the storm, more disaster struck.

Water starting coming into the room and flooding the carpet.

Once again, the duo had already warned Meriton about this on several occasions.

Mr Flink and his partner put down towels to try to salvage the room.

“Within not even 30 minutes those towels were absolutely water logged,” he recalled.

They put the towels in the dryer then started over again, repeating the process four times.

Realising this wasn’t working, they then decided to move their belongings, turning the living room into a “storage room”.

Mr Flink dismantled the bed and also put that in the lounge room, because the spare bedroom was also leaking – something that hadn’t happened before.

Meriton noted that it was not the owner of the Sundale building and that any defects are outside the statutory warranty period.

“Due to this, it is the responsibility of both the Body Corporate and each landlord to answer concerns raised by residents and to repair and maintain the building, not Meriton,” they said.

“Meriton has worked cooperatively with the Body Corporate and relevant Government entities to rectify genuine building defects within the statutory warranty period at Sundale and will continue to work collaboratively with all other Bodies Corporate, Owners Corporations and residents to comply with its legal obligations.”

The property conglomerate added that Cyclone Alfred “has led to many buildings in Queensland suffer damage that they would not have otherwise suffered in usual conditions”.

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They have been sending emails for years.

The apartment went mouldy within days.

The pair had to rush to find temporary accommodation the next day and when they returned to the apartment, it was incredibly “smelly”.

In the few days they had been away, they could already see visible mould on the carpet of the master bedroom. The carpets were also still soaking.

Mr and Ms Flink emailed their property manager refusing to pay rent when they saw the state of the place.

“We’re not paying $840 a week in rent for an apartment that’s unlivable,” he explained to news.com.au.

That same day, they got an email back. Meriton agreed that the place was unlivable and said the lease had ended.

“It basically said you have until midnight tonight to vacate.”

An email shared with news.com.au stated that they had been given notice of leave of their rental tenancy agreement and were required to vacate the premises by midnight that same day.

The email had come through at 6pm – giving them just six hours to sort out their future.

A box was checked stating that the reason for the termination was due to “non-liveability”.

They weren’t able to meet the deadline in time, but were luckily able to secure a new place to stay within a few days.

They moved there last week.

“The landlord offered the tenant further time to vacate until they found another residency and Meriton worked with the tenant each step of the way to ensure a seamless departure,” a Meriton spokesperson said.

They wrote to their property manager saying the flat was uninhabitable.

The couple had lived there for more than two years.

Mr Flink took to TikTok and has racked up millions of views outlining his plight.

“Cyclone Alfred has come into our building and flooded our bedroom,” he said on one.

“And yes, you’re seeing that correctly. We have zip ties holding the windows because our building refused to fix our window sills.

“And that is with multiple windows in our apartment. And that’s 14 floors up. “You wouldn’t think there would be flooding 14 floors up in an apartment, but here we are. Let’s go Meriton. Awesome.”

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Originally published as ‘Unlivable’: Luxury $840 a week rental horror in luxury Meriton Gold Coast apartment