IT took landlord Jason Quinlivan three months to have his tenants removed from a Lavington house, but after successfully getting an eviction notice he found the place had been trashed.
The tenants took off yesterday leaving the door unlocked and three dogs behind.
Piles of rubbish littered every room of the house, there were dog faeces and holes had been smashed in the walls.
Mr Quinlivan, who had not set foot inside the Kemp Street house in Lavington since February, said the place had slowly been turning into a rubbish dump.
He has been left with the clean-up and a damage bill which he is not sure is covered by insurance.
The move has prompted the Springdale Heights resident to call for a national database of bad tenants.
“A name and shame kind of thing would let other people know who not to trust,” Mr Quinlivan said.
Just last month The Border Mail reported on a housing department home in Glenroy that was trashed and left in a state neighbours said was “unfit for pigs”.
Mr Quinlivan said he believes the mess and damage to the house had been going on since February when the tenants moved in.
“I would call up to inspect the place but they wouldn’t answer the phone because they couldn’t pay the rent,” he said.
But when Mr Quinlivan decided it was time to take action he was faced with a wait of around three months.
“It took six weeks just to get a tribunal hearing and before that I was looking at 14 days just to give them notice of it,” he said.
“Then we had to fight to get them out.
“This is a warning to all landlords.”
Mr Quinlivan says he is not sure what to do with the animals left behind and hopes insurance will cover him for the damage to the house.
But he says he feels the system has let him down.
“We don’t have any rights at the moment,” he said.
“If they stole your car you could call police but if they kill your house you can’t do anything about it.”