- Melbourne woman lived in flooded house for a year
- The costs of two years of litigation were finally recovered
A tenant who was forced to live in a mouldy property for months with her family has been awarded $5,000 after taking her landlord to court.
Charisse and her partner, as well as her elderly parents, were forced to live in the nightmare house in Officer, in Melbourne’s south-east.
The family was exposed to persistent flooding, mold growth and foul odor due to unresolved plumbing issues.
However, when she was finally able to move in, her landlord refused to give her back her deposit, claiming one of the reasons was that the grass was not cut.
The dispute lasted for almost two years and the matter was taken to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
A judge ultimately awarded Charisse $2,800 in bail along with four additional weeks of rent as compensation last week.
The problems began immediately after Charisse and her family moved into the Victorian property in December 2021.
The house suffered major flooding due to heavy rains and faulty plumbing, which affected the bathroom, shower and toilets.
Charisse (above) spent two anxious years waiting for a court to hear her bail appeal.
This caused a persistent, unpleasant odor and water damage throughout the house.
Charisse reported that despite sending 48 separate complaints to the real estate agent, her family received minimal assistance.
The only measure taken was to unblock the gutters, which did not solve the problem.
“We had standing water on the deck literally from the day we moved in until the day we moved out,” Charisse said. Yahoo.
“Water was seeping through the bricks and there was mold growing on the walls. The carpet was covered in mold. We had to move out of our bedroom and my husband and I slept in the living room.”
Towards the end of 2022, Charisse found another property and was able to move in.
She said her elderly father died three months after they left the property and doctors found a “black mass” on his lung that could not be identified, although one doctor said it “could have been related to mold.”
Victoria’s tenancy laws set minimum standards for rental properties, including a requirement that all rooms be “free from mould and damp caused by, or related to, the structure of the building”.
Rental providers are also required to provide urgent repairs for related problems that arise after the tenant moves out.
Despite the property’s constant failings, Charisse was denied bail for “ridiculous” reasons.
Her property was subject to severe flooding at the time she and her family moved in.
One of the reasons given by the owner was that the grass had not been cut, which Charisse claims is flatly false.
“We had taken very good care of the place and they had not taken good care of us,” he said.
“He could have let us get our bond back and there wouldn’t have been any problem, instead of continuing for two years.”
The humidity ruined many of Charisse’s possessions and reportedly led to visits to the vet for her horses, which had to remain in a waterlogged pasture.
Charisse took her 200 pages of evidence to court, but her case was postponed seven different times before being heard.
She had not expected the case to be handled fairly after two years of delays, but the judge ultimately ruled firmly in her favor and ordered reimbursement of Charisse’s claims for rent, lost possessions and vet bills.