After three months of constant complaints and residents wanting a solution from the City of Canning in relation to an extreme case of hoarding in Ferndale, the property’s tenants have agreed to remove the excess items.
The City of Canning chief executive Arthur Kyron said an inspection of the property was completed last week and the occupier was very cooperative.
“We are working with them to ensure the materials are cleared from the property in a timely manner,” he said.
“The owner of the property has made no commitment to remove materials, however the occupier has.
“It may take a few more weeks to undertake the clean-up and resolve storage issues.
“We are committed to supporting the occupier and the surrounding residents through this process, until the matter is resolved.”
The Ferndale property owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Examiner the City of Canning sent him an email with a notice informing him they carried out an inspection earlier last week, however he said he was surprised to find out the issue had escalated to the point where the police had become involved.
“They said there was a lot of junk and rubbish and that they were contemplating whether it was unfit for human habitation,” he said.
“I was pretty surprised by the whole situation and pretty disgusted by the behaviour of the tenants.
“One of the big problems landlords have is that the rules and regulations seem to favour the tenants more than the owner of the property.
“What really annoys me is that I can’t legally and physically remove the things off the property.
“For the council to start issuing me threats of legal action when I physically and legally can’t do anything at the moment it is pretty disgusting.”
The owner confirmed he recently had surgery and was only just recovering, but authorised the city to act.
In addition, he confirmed the tenants owed him about $4000 in overdue rent and were subletting the property to other tenants.
“I have been messaging them on a daily basis to ask them about it, notices have been issued and they have been giving me excuses – I don’t need this hassle,” he said.
“I had 30 people apply for this property and before the tenants moved in, I checked their application and they said they were both working, they had never missed a payment for rent and had great references, but now I find out that my property is full of junk.”
While the owner rented the property to two people, he was told that six people were residing at the property.
“I asked them who the people living there were, and they said the other people were meant to be paying rent,” he said.
“I can’t tell the bank I can’t pay the mortgage because these tenants can’t pay rent.
It seems the two people I rented to don’t communicate with the others residing at the property.
“I want these tenants out of the house but these proceedings can take time in front of the courts.
“Over the 20 years I have been a landlord, this is by far the worst case I’ve ever had to deal with.
“It doesn’t take much to pay rent on time and take care of property.”
Cannington acting officer in charge Paul Amberson confirmed that police and a council officer attended the premises with a warrant on June 9, following complaints about extreme hoarding.
In addition, officer Amberson said it was brought to their attention by other residents that multiple plate numbers had been changed over the past months but confirmed all cars on the property were registered.
“Resident’s complaints didn’t go unnoticed,” he said.
“We have also increased patrols around the area in relation to car speeding complaints.
“The City of Canning officer did an inspection on the premises last week and we were there in case tenants became angry but that wasn’t the case, they were polite and complied.”
While Officer Amberson said there was no evidence of car speeding or related drug issues coming from this property, he encouraged other residents to get video evidence or photos of anything suspicious that may assist police.
“If you caught anything, don’t put yourself in danger but if we could get video evidence or photos of anything that we can use as evidence, to get information and execute warrants then that would be fantastic,” he said.
“However, don’t put yourself in danger and don’t jump on the road when a vehicle is driving past and please don’t get hurt trying to get evidence.
“We want you to know we do read community social media pages, like I Love Willetton and others and we do monitor these websites to see what’s going on, even though we don’t comment directly but we do take things seriously and into account.”
