Hello there @Jynx @Shaz51 @Meowmy @TAB @Faith-and-Hope @tyme @Lauz @Glisten @SmilingGecko and other forumites here. Thank you all very much for the kind words and support of my news regarding Mitz. This very much appreciated and I thank you very much for caring about me here in forumland. I hope I can repay the favour soon.
- Warning- long rant ahead!
As for me and my life in the Jungle, let’s just say if the jungle was a cruise ship, she’d be travelling in some very rough and choppy waters right now and I’m not sure if or even when there are going to be calm seas ahead for me to travel through. The reason why I’m saying this is because on 30/9 when I was in Airlie Beach, my housemate got a phone call from a real estate agency who told us that we have 60 days to vacate our property as the owner wants to move back in and to start looking for a property as soon as possible. They were really nasty about it and I went into panic mode, despite having a weird feeling our landlord was up to something from previous weird messages and emails from people other than him. He’d also been avoiding us after the terrible bathroom renovation incident that lasted over 6 weeks in January and all of February this year in such hot weather and no compensation despite him telling us in an email that he would. We put up with a blocked toilet that we resolved ourselves, a flooding bathroom for 6 months until I took the drain hole cover off in the shower as an idea to see if it would solve the issue which it did (we’re still not going to tell the landlord and new property manager this as we want to get revenge on the landlord for what he did), mould in and near the bathroom and laundry after the bathroom flooded in March last year due to a broken hose under the bathroom sink which he knew about and never fixed, floorboards that move and are a hazard with both of us having falls due to the previous flooding and have only gotten worse after the bathroom renovation and an unusable stove that keeps tripping the power board (we purchased an electric cooktop to use in August which we’ve been using ever since) as we were so scared of telling him in case he decided to evict us for some silly reason. Obviously now, he’s decided to do this with the reason being that he wants to move back in, however, my housemate and I believe he’s going to relet the place as soon as possible to a higher rent amount despite him signing a stat Dec and not being legally allowed for 6 months after we move out according to rental laws here in Victoria. My housemate engaged the use of tenancy legal staff once got an email from the new property manager and we have since discovered that the landlord tried to evict us in June using the same tactic of a stat Dec on his own but failed due to wrong information in the submission to VCAT which the legal team told us about when they went looking for any past issues with the landlord and the property. He’s since hired a real estate company to do this properly despite him admitting that he detests them which is hypocritical to say the least. We’ve also been given a notice by the new property manager to say she’s coming over on the 21st to do a maintenance inspection as the landlord wants to see what needs to be fixing when he apparently moves back in, despite knowing that there will be boxes everywhere as we’ve since started packing. The landlord also wants to get solar panels installed (a joke really in our eyes as it’s not hot enough for them to be any real use or cost saving and the knowledge that lots of houses where we live have had them crack in the weather and be deemed useless which we’re hoping will happen to our landlord as a karma incident!). We’re not going to tell the property manager any of this as the legal team have told my housemate to use this as a compensation claim against the landlord despite having a paper trail to the landlord regarding several of the issues which he failed to rectify. The landlord also used his power to threaten us with eviction on several occasions due to being on Centrelink and came over unannounced on lots of occasions to check up on us and bring people over to do ‘works’ which never solved any of the issues including having several of his friends make sexual remarks to my housemate both in person when they were at the property and via phone calls to her mobile, including during the bathroom renovations. All of this we put up with as we were both so scared of saying anything in case he chose to evict us despite us paying rent on time and putting up with his poor maintenance and property issues which we have been told is both illegal and against so many rental laws.
Suffice to say, ever since we got home on the 8th, we have been looking for properties in our new price range and having to make the decision to look over an hour away in regional Victoria where properties are within our price range after having limited options in our current location ( only 2 properties available and lots of people wanting them). Luckily I purchased a new (used) car on Thursday and collected it on Monday and have been using it to go look at properties in the new area to find that it’s also a tough market in this zone (at least 10 people looking at 2 different properties yesterday alone) as some of the properties are cheaper compared to our current location. We are fighting people who are employed which goes against us financially as we all know landlords have a stigma against people on Centrelink despite us both being on the Disability Support Pension and students so we do have more than enough money to cover the rent we are looking at. We don’t have kids or animals and our income is stable unlike people who are employed and could lose their job and be a financial risk yet landlords don’t seem to understand or want to understand this. Our landlord has said he won’t give us a reference as we have too much stuff and are deemed to be messy (the property has no storage and we moved from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom unit which he knew 3 years ago when he gave us the lease) yet we have had emergency services in the property on several occasions and have written notes to say this isn’t true and that the unit is clean and tidy. He has also said on many occasions that real estate agents won’t touch us because of being on Centrelink, full well knowing that we’d struggle to get a place anyway without this knowledge of his. We have since decided to not give his details out to our new applications and have arranged to be creative with our rental history of the previous 5 years that property managers now want (thanks family and friends!).
Mentally, I’m really starting to struggle with this whole rental situation as I’m really worried we won’t find a place and that we could be potentially homeless as of 2/12/2024. I’m worried that my housemate has too much stuff and is having trouble getting rid of things she doesn’t really need yet wants to keep. I’ve had a look at my bedroom and could easily pack it up in 2 boxes at the most with 2 bags of wool that I need and get rid of lots of things I don’t require anymore such as Lego that I purchased during lockdowns which could be easily donated to a local charity as Christmas presents. I’ve also realised that lots of my things have been in our garage which has been inaccessible for 3 years because of where the items are (several boxes of wool and other forgotten items) which I realise I don’t really need. My sister has said she’ll take me in at her house until I can find a place yet she’s refusing to take my housemate as she says she stresses her out and causes too much trouble. My sister has also admitted that she wants me to split up from my housemate of 8 years yet this is a typical strategy of my sisters as she’s been like this with all of my past friends ever since we were kids and doesn’t want me having any friends and I see this to be a form of emotional or psychological abuse and control of me from her perspective yet I can’t do anything about it because of her ramifications against me, both financially and emotionally. My housemate has said she can’t move back in with her own family because of a similar situation with her mother and sister (her sister works from home 3 days a week and controls the household despite it being her mothers house with there being lots of incidents of potential elder abuse by her against her mother yet her mother won’t do anything about it for some unknown reason) and she has also been told that she would need to leave the house each day when her sister is at work and her mother is at work, along with admitting they both of them in the past have gone through her possessions when she lived there and have controlled the food she eats (she has a past eating disorder history so this is very traumatic for her) and has been hit by her sister on several occasions which her sister lied to the police about and used my housemates mental illness against her to her advantage. We have spent the past few days looking at homeless organisations to little success or help and have come up with a potential solution for 2 months should we need somewhere to live after the 2nd whilst we look at properties. The legal team have said we don’t need to leave on the 2nd as it will need to go to VCAT and the landlord will need to explain why he needs the property more than us and we have been told that due to this being a minor issue in the eyes of the Residential Tenancies Act, it could be 4-6 weeks before the case even gets heard so there is that option but we want out of the place knowing the landlord and property manager will give us trouble should we choose to do this. My housemate is looking at storage places for some of her things and I’ll store the rest at my sisters house such as the fridge, washing machine, bed, etc and some boxes until we find a place to move in to, hopefully sooner rather than later. It’ll be costly but I do have some money to pay for removalists so I’ll have to do this.
Right now, the only things that are keeping me sane are my knitting and the fact that I’m not alone in this problem. I’m still knitting beanies, blankets and jumpers for charity as it’s giving me a purpose and I’m facing my fear of driving to inspections after not driving for 14 months. I’m trying to be strong but equally, I’m feeling very stressed and have been skipping meds at times, not eating properly and not getting much sleep. I just really want things to improve and get better for mysrlf and my housemate as we are good people who don’t deserve this. I have to wonder if I did something wrong and this is my punishment. Maybe astrologically, something is wrong with me and that’s what has caused this to happen? I don’t know anymore. I’m safe and I’m okay.
Time to go and try and rest. Thanks for reading all of this ( if you have).
Take care and stay safe.
Judi9877
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