Perfect tenant billed $10k for damage

A Huntly tenant has been handed a bill for more than $10,000 by the Tenancy Tribunal for damage to his rented home.

Scott Perfect rented a house from Arrow Property Management until the tenancy was terminated by an order of the tribunal on June 26.

The landlord showed the tribunal photographs of a large number of rubbish bags, old food and building materials left outside, as well as piles of unwanted clothes, beds, household items and a lounge suite.

The food had attracted cockroaches and rats.

‘‘Items were soiled and needed to be disposed of. The premises were dirty throughout,’’ the tribunal adjudicator noted.

‘‘The lawns and gardens were overgrown, and horses had been grazed on the lawn, so additional clean-up was required.’’

The adjudicator’s ruling described multiple holes ‘‘in nearly every room of the house’’. Some appeared to have been intentionally cut.

‘‘The lounge door was smashed in half, the laundry door had been boarded up, a bedroom door was taken off and damaged, cupboard doors were missing. At least seven walls and cupboard doors had been drawn or graffitied with paint and marker pen.’’

The adjudicator said the damage was ‘‘far more than fair wear and tear, and the tenant has not disproved liability for the damage’’.

Perfect was told to pay rent arrears, for a new key and lock, garden work, $632 for rubbish removal, $103 for pest control, $4381 for repairs to walls, doors and the mantelpiece, and $3214.80 for replacement carpet, as well as other costs.