Landlord from hell!

A landlord and her husband sent a text the night before Christmas to move into their tenants' backyard and live from a tent for no good reason. Allegedly the backyard area wasn't part of the lease for the home.

Some LL's go over the top but quite a sticky situation for every party to be in.

The campsite causing a backyard bust up between a landlord and tenants

 

"And now the landlord who usually resides in a swanky Sydney suburb"

ha i wonder what swanky suburb that might be ?

gotta love today tonight trash television

 

Hahaha that’s hilarious! What a crappy landlord.

 

No different to having neighbours living next door to you really, but I do wonder how well the RA relayed that the backyard didn't come with the rental. By looking at the video, it looks like the tenants have had their car and other possessions in the backyard. Not something I'd like to do as a LL.

 

In the article the tenants say they can’t complain to council because of it being the Christmas period (given the landlord arrived the day before Christmas).

But councils don’t close down over Christmas (apart from the statutory holidays) so I expect they were able to chat to Council on Dec 29 - so I would have expected some progress by now - almost 2 weeks later...

 

I called a council on the afternoon of 23/12/20 and it sounded like a party going on. They advised me they were about to shut down until 11/1/21.

 

I would guess with a small council, it would take a while to go through the normal workings as it wouldn't be a priority to them. The amount of times I've had to report problems to BCC and it takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks just to respond, I think they hope that problems go away by themselves.

 

Yeah you would think it would be getting sorted by now

 

Which council?

I guess I’m too used to middle ring Melbourne councils. Sounds like your council staff are forced to take leave then (rural or rural fringe?) a bit like tradies at Xmas?

And this doesn’t really count as an emergency.

I imagine the issue for council would be camping without a toilet - bound to violate some local law...but there will be legal processes that have to be adhered to, so it might take a while...

Maybe the tenants will need to go to NCAT?

 

It’s a small council in Perth 9k’s from the city so inner - middle ring, that has three suburbs in it. Yes Perth is still a country town! I couldn’t access there closure dates to screenshot as there site is having IT issues/server errors. IT staff on holidays too.

 

It may not be unlawful to camp on their block of land, some councils in Qld offer 'temporary home permits' for tents and caravans while building on a block of land. It will be dependent on the council by-laws in that town.

 

Some context for consideration
"For no good reason" I can think of a good reason: to be onsite while the GF or other development is happening.

Another good reason - to holiday at Byron.

Tenant was apparently using the backyard shed. Was this included in the lease? The journalist didn't show us. Perhaps tenant was in breach, we dont know.

Are property owners allowed to camp on their own property in Byron? I dont know but the facts would be easy to research on the council website.

Tenant mentioning "no toilet or shower" as an issue. Tenant doesn't know anything about self-sufficiency camping.

We do not know from the TV segment whether the tenancy commenced before or after the land was subdivided. This piece of information would determine whether the owners have any recourse to arrive and trespass on the tenant's privacy. As the lady said "granny flat", I would assume there is no subdivision and then trespassing becomes an issue and tenants can probably breach the LL. If the land has been subdivided, do the owners have to create separate entrances?

What does the NSW tenancy act say? Current Affair did not mention this at all.

A sensible Property Manager wont be commenting to a tv station.

 

Different councils, Yamba is 4 headlands down from Byron. It's a bit odd that anyone would want to live at the rear of their rental in a tent I've got to admit.

Shed was located in the backyard, they stated on the show that the backyard wasn't included in the lease of the home, it won't matter about the title. I've a property that's the same with large acreage, and I've just fenced the house off, but I don't need to access the property from anywhere near their driveway. You wouldn't know what conspired previously to the televised argument either. The tenants were also told that the owners would frequently access the rear shed, they should have asked in writing how often. I suppose it will boil down to whether the council will allow them to camp there and privacy issues.

 

Yamba? Oops my brain has been bombarded with Byron Bay from reading PC for an hour before I wrote that last night.

 

Well if they signed a lease that said backyard not included, then moved their trampoline in there when it's obviously fenced off ... bloody tenants

Not to say the owners aren't feral as well, even if she comes from Centennial Park

 

All I saw was the tv ad for this, it could easily be seen in just that brief ad that the rear yard was fenced off and had a seperate access.

Title of this thread should be "tenant didn't read lease" or "another Current Affair beat up" !

Tenant : look at me look at my mullet
Tenant : also used rear yard and shed that was clearly excluded from lease.

Owner : just camping for free while on hols
Owner : has a cassette camping toilet

ACA : irresponsible reporting !
Watch the video at the 9:58---> 10:05 min mark, there's a big grey brick double letterbox between the two driveway entry points ffs !

Owner : probably should have run the side fence further up toward letterbox

Tenant : should be grateful they have a vacant buffer/yard to the other neighbors 11odd months a year

 

How do you know it’s a cassette toilet (‘porta potty’)?

 

How do the tenants know they're using a bucket ?

I'm not from a flash Sydney suburb or wealthy (like the "owner" is made out to be), but I own a tent and have a porta potty with its own tent (due to necessity ) or the other half would never go "camping" !

From memory Ronald said they had sanitary facilities, and the owner said they also went to the beach (I'm assuming sorry, Porta potty on site, beach/council showers).

We have been known to "set up camp" in friends back yards while on hols for 5-14 days easily, it gives each family some space still and saves heaps on accommodation

The Porta Potty is bearable to empty (due to the chemicals), a bucket is vile if it has sat for even only 30 min.

Either way it must have been a slow week at ACA to run this story

I can understand the Police or council not taking any action, it is a civil dispute, based on the big grey letterbox and lease, when the owner showed up he/she should have called the police, had the tenant charged for tresspass and costs to remove their items stored in the shed/property that they had no right to. Maintaining the lawn didn't give the tenant "rights", mullet man up made an assumption and it would appear (in my opinion) that he was very wrong.

The tenant (Mr Mullet and nurse wife) also said they thought it was great when they got the rental at such a great price.........

Even ACA says about how the rental is "partially fenced", what all the way around seperating the two properties with the exception of a few meters forward of the house to tbe leterbox ! ! ! The rear and side of the actual house are completely fenced off and seperate as visable in the tenants supplied video's.....
Sure ACA can be trashy, but this is a whole new low for them !

The REA is most at fault here, this could and should have been sorted on the first call, from either the landlord saying "have the tenant remove their property immediately", or by telling the tenant to read their lease as it states the rear seperately fenced and accessed yard is not included !

*For clarity, I once rented a house in Geelong West, the garage was listed as not being included and the rent reflected this, lease also stated that the owner would occasionally require access via the driveway to said shed, it was also noted that notice would be provided by the owner prior to gaining access via the rented driveway , this was also via text, and on occasion sent when he was out the front 2 min prior !
I left the shed fuse in, but made sure the lights were off after he had left.

 

Tenants, in the article, said the landlords were going to the toilet in a bucket - so have no reason to think it was a cassette toilet. But who knows...