Tenant sick of sewage hell
At a house on Tuhimata Road, on the outskirts of Pukekohe, the stench of sewage lingers in the air.
Tenant Nicola Thomas can’t sleep and desperately wants to move out, after the house was flooded with human waste this month.
The hallway is lined with sheets and old towels used to mop up the excrement and Thomas said she was fed up with having to live in an unsafe home.
Thomas said she moved into the Paerata property almost three years ago and was excited to make the place her own.
‘‘It wasn’t great I’ll admit that, but I just wanted to be somewhere away from all the hustle and bustle.’’
But in recent weeks, Thomas said the property had become unsafe. This month she has been electrocuted by her oven, had windows break, had the bathroom light blub explode on her and had to live among the human waste from neighbouring properties.
‘‘When I came home a few weeks ago there was human poo and loo paper coming out of the drain,’’ she said.
‘‘I cleaned it up. Then when the drainage guy came he pumped water through the system instead of sucking it out and then there was an explosion of hideousness through the house.’’
Thomas said the house became flooded in sewage.
‘‘I came inside to go to the toilet and sewage had spewed through the toilet, up onto the walls, all over the floor and into the hall carpet. I’m on a shared septic tank, so it wasn’t even my own sewage.’’
After cleaning up the property at her own expense, Thomas said she had approached the property manager, Lee-Anne Hawkins of Barfoot and Thompson Meadowlands, for compensation.
This hasn’t been granted yet and she is still being expected to pay her weekly rent of $320 in the mean time.
Barfoot and Thompson director Kiri Barfoot said the property was an older home and the repair work had been classified as deferred maintenance.
‘‘We have only been managing the property since April. Yes there are issues and we are working on that. These things are complicated and we are doing what we can as there’s no way someone should have to live [in a property] below a certain standard.’’
On Wednesday Thomas said she had reached breaking point and despite not having any money for a bond on a new Pukekohe rental she has been offered, she gave the property manager her three weeks notice.
‘‘I had loved it here, but if the owner and property manager aren’t going to show me any respect I’m too scared to stay. I just want somewhere safe and dry,that doesn’t stink.’’