RENTAL HORROR: Landlord unable to evict tenants who ruined home

A Tasmanian landlord has come home to find the nightmare tenants he could not remove due to COVID-19 hold on evictions have left him with a daunting and expensive clean up. SEE INSIDE >>

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A TASMANIAN landlord has come home to find the nightmare tenants he could not remove due to the COVID-19 stay on evictions have trashed his property and left him with a daunting and expensive clean up.

Frank Green and his wife Lyn now live in Queensland, but have a rental property at Low Head on Tasmania’s north coast.

The tenants have gone and their retirement investment plans have crashed.

The Greens now plan to clean the place up, replace filthy carpets and broken windows (at an estimated cost of $25,000), cut their losses on the $12,000 in unpaid rent and put the property on the market.

Hope Green, Lynette Green, Adin Oates, Ella MacIntosh and Frank Green outside their rental property left allegedly trashed by previous tenants.

The Greens were in the process of evicting their tenants through the courts when COVID-19 hit and the Tasmanian Government introduced an emergency tenant package which included a moratorium on rental arrears and a stay on evictions.

That moratorium was recently extended from December 1 to January 31 and Mr Green is not the only landlord saying the policy is being exploited and is pushing landlords to the wall.

President of the Tasmanian Residential Rental Property Owners Association Louise Elliot said landlords could be waiting for more than a year to be paid what they are owed.

“The government wouldn’t try that with any of the big players, how on earth is it OK to do this to everyday people,” she said when the moratorium was extended.

BEFORE:

Lyn and Frank Green's rental property, before it was trashed. Photo: Supplied

Lyn and Frank Green's rental property, before it was trashed. Photo: Supplied

AFTER:

Mr Green claimed the tenants, who had lived in the property for three years, were on welfare payments.

“They were given notice to vacate in January and stopped paying rent from the day they received that correspondence,” Mr Green said.

The couple headed to court to formalise the eviction process but were told by a magistrate the government’s moratorium was now in place and nothing could be done until that was lifted.

Mr Green claims the tenants locked the gate to the property.

The Greens later discovered they had actually moved out in June and moved a mate into the house.

Lyn and Frank Green outside their rental property left allegedly trashed by previous tenants.

“I have written to Premier Peter Gutwein and we started the process of trying to claim $2000 of the money owed but it is laborious process for landlords,” Mr Green said.

“We have to prove hardship, provide bank statements and other paperwork. It is all too hard.

“We will just sell the house and walk away.”

There are clean up contractors on site today then plasters, glaziers, carpet layers and painters will start work.

“All up the clean up will cost about $25,000. This property was part of our retirement plan,” Mr Green said.

“The government’s policy was not thought through properly. We could not believe it when the moratorium was extended.”

The eviction-free period has been pushed back until January 31, 2021, and to date the state government has cleared $1.79M in rental arrears.

It has also dolled out $348,820 to 265 landlords in the COVID-19 support fund, and as of Friday there had been 290 applications for support.

Elise Archer, Minister for Building and Construction said while the protections for tenants have prevented eviction for rent arrears, landlords can still apply to a court to order a tenant to vacate a property for reckless damage and unlawful behaviour.

“The combined support from the COVID-19 Rent Relief Fund and COVID-19 Landlord Support Fund is up to $10,000 for eligible residential tenancies,” she said.

“Any outstanding rent following this financial support can be deducted from the tenant’s bond, or recovered through the courts.”