Jess Battison
A couple couldn’t believe it when they had to fork out over £7,000 (AU$13,000) to clean up their rental home after a ‘trusted mum’ stayed.
Helping out a friend, a Melbourne couple offered their rental to a mum-of-three in need. But they couldn’t’ believe the state she left it in.
Back in 2019, Andrew Robson and his partner Jay agreed with their landlord that they’d find a replacement to cover their home’s rent while they were living in Queensland.
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Luckily, their year-long friend was looking for a new place. So, in trust, they offered the property to her and her kids.
Although it was a ‘smooth’ transition, issues quickly arose within a few months.
In a viral TikTok video, they revealed there were ‘financial difficulties’ but they didn’t ‘think much of it’ to begin with.
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Jay said: "However, it just became more frequent, more often, where she needed money for supporting the kids, money for school, money for this, money for whatever reason you could think of."
And as helpful friends, they covered the rent for her multiple times. Andrew said: “We just wanted to help her.”
But now the couple say the mum-of-three ‘threw it all back’ in their faces.
Over the few years that followed, both Andrew and Jay plus the homeowner tried to inspect the place – but got constant excuses.
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In July 2022, the owner gave the mum three months to vacate the house. Andrew said: “He tried to give her every chance.”
When the house was eventually empty, the couple drove over and couldn’t believe the mess they found.
Walking into the house they were horrified to see graffiti’d walls, opened cans of food, the floor blanketed in rubbish and the stovetop absolutely layered with old, rotting food. It was a total mess.
Andrew wrote on the video: "We helped her when she needed a place to stay and this is what she does."
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He also said in a video: "The smell, the layers of filth, the faeces on the walls, the windows. A mother was raising her three kids in that absolute mess and disgust."
After the ‘friend’ and her kids disappeared, the couple have quite the bill in damaged.
"According to her, the house was in exceptional condition," Jay said with Andrew adding they ‘misplaced’ their trust.
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The couple needed to cover £1500 (AU$3,000) in overdue rent, with an outstanding energy bill at a whopping £4700 (AU$9,000).
They spent an entire two days just getting all of the rubbish out – one room had a mega 12.5kg of it.
But it caused them a real headache. Andrew and Jay even made a GoFundMe to help cover the mega cleaning bills and costs as they attempt to ‘reinstate this beautiful family home’. They also wrote: "Mental health doesn’t only affect the person suffering, but everyone around them as well. Any funds left over from the fix up will be donated to a local mental health organization to help those who need help."