‘This just kicks you in the guts’
A man who asked a landlord to give a tenant ‘‘a chance’’ is mortified at the mess she left at a Richmond property.
‘‘It’s just broken my heart,’’ the 70-year-old church member said.
‘‘I’ve just helped people all my life, and 90 per cent of them are fine. But when one just kicks you in the stomach like this for no reason, it really hurts. And it seems like it’s all my fault.’’
The Gladstone Rd house was left looking like a dump after the previous tenant left almost three tonnes of rubbish piled in the driveway.
Inside, landlord Barry Thomp- son found that the house reeked of cigarette and marijuana smoke, door handles had been punched through walls, two windows were broken and the entire kitchen may need to be replaced.
The 70-year-old man who helped convince Thompson to rent the property to the woman hired a truck and removed the rubbish himself, spending three days and more than $100 on the effort.
The benefactor, who asked that his name not be published to avoid identifying the tenant, said he did not guarantee her tenancy, but felt responsible because he called to ask Thompson to ‘‘give her a chance’’.
‘‘Because I’ve rung on her behalf to the landlord I feel like I’ve got to do something,’’ he said. ‘‘I was amazed at the mess.’’
After removing the rubbish, the man, who belongs to a Nelson church, said he would tidy up the garden and lawn as well.
‘‘I’ve helped a lot of people, and this was the first time it went belly-up on me. This just kicks you in the guts,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s an awful feeling.’’
‘‘I’m here cleaning this up, I was here on Saturday, which was very upsetting because of my beliefs, but when I saw what it was like I had to do something.’’
The man and his wife have been helping this woman for years, and he said the amount of money he has spent on her is ‘‘in the thousands, mostly for food’’.
‘‘I don’t mind that because you’ve got to have food,’’ he said. But the help and support he has given her now seem like ‘‘three years wasted’’.
Despite this, he is still concerned for the woman and her child. ‘‘They need absolute help, which we tried to give, but it’s come back to bite me. Where is she going to find someone else to help her like my wife and I have?’’
Thompson has sympathy for the tenant’s benefactor, but said ‘‘he opened his mouth to guarantee her, and he shouldn’t have.’’
Thompson said the man was ‘‘a good chap, and I feel a bit sorry for him’’. He had received many offers of help for cleaning up the property, and has made arrangements for it to be tested for methamphetamine.
‘‘I’m not worried about missed rent,’’ he said. He is an accountant at Thompson Daly Chartered Accountants and owns several other properties. He said his main concern was raising awareness to make a change. ‘‘I can cover the costs, but there needs to be a better system.’’
Thompson has printed all the comments the original story attracted into a 32-page file, and he said he would go through them all.
He said based on this experience and what people had shared in their comments, he would like to make a leaflet of advice for people thinking about becoming residential landlords.