Daniel Yeats found his investment property completely trashed after a year of trying to regain possession from tenants who never paid rent. Picture: Channel 9
An Aussie landlord has slammed his state’s tenancy laws after renters squatted in his property for a year without paying and virtually destroyed the home in the process.
Daniel Yeats was left $25,000 out of pocket and forced to find another job after the battle to evict the tenants from his Melbourne investment property stretched out to a year of tribunal hearings and bureaucratic red tape.
Mr Yeats, a first-time property investor, was subjected to 13 hearings at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal before finally regaining possession of the home in South Morang in January.
Mr Yeats faced as many as 14 tribunal hearings before getting the home back. Picture: Channel 9
The tenants, a mother and her two daughters, left the property in such a poor state that when he finally set foot inside the home after a year Mr Yeats couldn’t believe what he was looking at.
He said more than 10 cats were roaming the home, the property was crawling with maggots, walls were smeared with faeces, and the stench was overpowering.
“We are now left with a trashed property that I have to repair at my own cost, while the tenants, who were drug users, have no means to pay for the damages they caused,’ Mr Yeats said.
“The loopholes in Victoria’s current tenancy system have left landlords like myself vulnerable and financially burdened.
When he finally got inside, Mr Yeats found a house of horrors. Picture: Channel 9
“It’s disheartening and unfair that even after a drawn-out legal process, property owners are left without support or compensation for the tremendous losses inflicted upon them.”
Between unpaid rent and legal fees, Mr Yeats said he was forced to take a job as a FIFO worker to pay for everything.
Those costs won’t include thousand of dollars Mr Yeats now has to pay for cleaning and repairs.
Mr Yeats has since launched a petition urging the Victorian government to step in and help innocent Australian like himself.
Mr Yeats now faces a huge bill spanning unpaid rent, legal costs, repairs and cleaning.
Despite his calls for fairness, Mr Yeats’ situation has failed to register a response from a Victorian government that claims its tenancy laws balance the rights of both renters and landlords.
Property lawyer Justin Lawrence from Henderson & Ball said landlords in Victoria were always treated as “the bad guy”.
“It’s absolutely crucial that every landlord totally vets their prospective tenant, references, checks, employment history, even bank statements,” he told A Current Affair.
“I think the starting point for most laws across Australia is that they should be fair. If you’re a tenant and you don’t pay rent, you should be evicted.”
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