Tenant: Let me rent, I'll fix your property and pay for it

IS THIS tenant a landlord's dream come true? He spent $30,000 improving and maintaining the home he was renting, but now an uncertain future has him in limbo.

Noosaville tenant Tony Conyers thought his tenancy was guaranteed until 2035, so he spent his own money on the property. Now he's been told he may not be able to stay for even one more year. Picture: John McCutcheon

IS THIS tenant a landlord's dream come true?

Tony Conyers has lived in the same Noosa property for 17 years, and has completed the vast majority of improvements and maintenance on the property himself out of his own pocket.

But now he faces an uncertain future and is looking for a new property he can rent and improve - and his first move would be to build a $20,000 garage at his new home.

"I'm not looking for a handout or anything like that," Mr Conyers said.

He has been in the home for 17 years, but thought he would be secure until 2035, after the landlord told him in 2010 he could stay in the home for 25 more years.

"They said, 'Spend any money you want on the place, do whatever you like, it's your place for the next 25 years,'" Mr Conyers said.

He said he had spent about $30,000 in total on the property.

But when he went to the landlord recently with plans to build a garage on the property, the landlord couldn't guarantee he could stay in the home for another year.

Now, fearing he could only have months left to find a new place to live, the 52-year-old is putting the call out to Sunshine Coast property owners who would consider giving him a long-term lease - as long as possible - at a price he can afford on his disability pension.

In return, he will treat the property as his own, making improvements and carrying out maintenance himself.

"There's nothing in the real estate offices I can afford on a pension," Mr Conyers said.

"But there might be somebody out there who's got a property that I can rent from them."

Mr Conyers has been on a disability pension since a car crash in which he was a passenger left him with a broken spine at 20 years old and a growing list of related health problems.

He still does most of the maintenance on the house himself, working for a few hours in the morning before resting through the afternoons.

"I'm still a very handy person, it just takes me longer to do things," he said.

Mr Conyers wants to build a garage for his car with the inheritance he received when his mother passed away.

"The money that I was going to spend on the garage on this property, I'll spend it on somebody else's property," he said.

"If I found somebody who had a property, I'd help them out and do work on the place... whatever it would take.

"The favour will be completely returned in kind, there's no doubt about that."

Some of the most recent works he has completed included replacing fences, privacy screens and clearing trees felled when Cyclone Debbie hit the Sunshine Coast.

"When that last cyclone come through... It actually hit this place really hard," Mr Conyers said.

"It took me almost two months to do the repairs, but it was almost $3000 in repairs I did on the place out of my own pocket.

"I did it because I believed I still had 18, 19 years left here... the thanks I got was a rent increase."

Mr Conyers hopes to find a new home to rent as soon as possible.

"I've always tried to do things myself, but in this situation I'm going to be totally screwed," he said.

"I cannot live on the street.

"If I live on the street, it means I'll lose my pension, I can't get my medication, I can't get anything."

He had hoped to live in his current home for the rest of his life.

"I've just been left hanging," he said.

"I put my blood and guts into this place because I thought I had a home."

He said he was happy to live in a rural area, but couldn't live in a shared home because of the amount of rest his body required.

If you can help Tony, email your contact details to [e-mail]

Originally published as Tenant: Let me rent, I'll fix your property and pay for it