“Kicked in the teeth”: landlord left with mammoth clean-up

A North Hobart landlord has been left picking up the pieces after a hoarder trashed her house and then vanished. See inside the “staggering” pigsty they left behind. PHOTOS + VIDEO>>>

LANDLORD Kim Woodcock didn’t expect her North Hobart home to be immaculate when her tenant took off without a trace, but what she found when she opened the door was mountains of empty bottles, plastic shopping bags and rubbish littered from one end of the house to the other.

“It was just staggering when I opened the door, I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

“Just the stench permeated everything.

“There were empty cat food cans everywhere, drink bottles, shopping bags, Uber Eats bags and then just cardboards boxes, I haven’t even looked to see what’s in them.

“(There was) cat mess over everything as well.”

Kitchen. Rental property in Hobart that has been left with huge amounts of rubbish after the tenant vacated. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Ms Woodcock was ankle deep in disposables as she waded through the rubbish.

There were similar scenes in the main bedroom, with piles of plastic soft drink bottles resting at the foot of the steel-framed bed and large black rubbish bags piled high at the head.

In the kitchen, rotting food sat in an open freezer, covered in specks of mould.

Food left in the freezer. Rental property in Hobart that has been left with huge amounts of rubbish after the tenant vacated. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Meanwhile, Ms Woodcock’s choice of floor tile or laminate in the bathroom was a mystery.

“Yesterday (Wednesday) was the first chance I had to go in, expecting it to not be 100 per cent clean," Ms Woodcock said.

Bedroom. Rental property in Hobart that has been left with huge amounts of rubbish after the tenant vacated. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“I went straight down to Woolies and bought some big rubber gloves, it was overwhelming.”

The two bedroom townhouse was rented out for $330 a week to a long term tenant, well below the average for the area.

Ms Woodcock had inspected the home six months earlier and said it wasn’t covered in rubbish.

Bathroom and laundry. Rental property in Hobart that has been left with huge amounts of rubbish after the tenant vacated. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“This chap had been here for a while and I’d bent over backwards to help him out in hard situations,” Ms Woodcock said.

“It’s just to infuriating that you do try and do the right thing and help somebody out and then you just get kicked in the teeth.”

Ms Woodcock has no way of getting in contact with the tenant, who left the key in an envelope for her and disappeared.

Kim Woodcock owner of the property in the kitchen of the house. Rental property in Hobart that has been left with huge amounts of rubbish after the tenant vacated. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Before discovering the mess, she’d saved up to put in new windows, get the roof redone and get the whole thing repainted.

Now she is tasked with the clean up, a job she predicts will take weeks.

“I’ve saved to get it all repainted and get the floors done but I haven’t got extra to do what I shouldn’t have to do,” she said,” Ms Woodcock said.

“I can’t afford to pay somebody to clean that out, it’s going to cost thousands and to replace things, the fridge, everything, I’m going to have to do it myself.

“My son’s got a tip truck and we’ll just rake and shovel, loading it all up.”

Tasmanian Residential Rental Property Owners Association president Louise Elliot said owners should ensure they have thorough condition reports and do quarterly inspections.

“A lot of damage can happen in a relatively short amount of time,” Ms Elliot said.

“Without a before photos and a record of the situation, it can be hard to prove what’s occurred since.”

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