Theo Iliou from Darwin has described his heartache as he opened the door to the home he and his wife Monica bought as an investment for their six children.
'I only got as far as the dining area, and wasn't brave enough to look any further,' Mr Iliou told Daily Mail Australia.
The landlord knew there would be some cleaning up to do because the yard was overgrown but he wasn't expecting animal faeces all over the floor or mountains of garbage lining the walls.
'We went there with a bin to tidy the yard but because we hadn't even opened the house yet and were getting a nasty smell I knew the inside of the house would be worse. I peeked through the windows but because I could only see limited areas I wasn't prepared.'
It was an assault on his senses.
'Honestly when I was in there my main concern was for my health and not the house – I didn't feel safe walking into that environment.
He only knows what most of the house looked like because of pictures taken by a cleaner.
Inside one of the bedrooms was a large fish tank – when the lid was opened it was obvious there was something dead inside.
Further inspection revealed rotting fish and a dead turtle in the thick stagnant water.
Mr Iliou thought at first the damage had been caused as an act of vandalism after he evicted the couple – and their young child with six week notice because they were continuously falling behind on the rent.
But then he found evidence the family just lived in squalor.
'There was a Christmas tree in one of the piles of rubbish that had been there since December last year. The most heart-breaking thing was coming across kids toys and Dvds because it was a constant reminder that there was a child living in the house.'
The home was being rented out for $650 per week when the tenants moved in two years ago.
Which the Iliou family thought they would have no trouble affording as the male tenant was earning $75,000 per year as a head chef and his wife was also employed. But when they fell behind in rent and told the Iliou family they were going through a hard time it was reduced by one hundred dollars.
It was further reduced by another hundred dollars when they had more difficulties.
Mrs Iliou is devastated that the couple who they took a chance on repaid them by leaving their home in such a huge mess.
'When my husband go to the house he called me and told me not to come,' she said. 'But I did and I thought I would have a quick look.
'I could smell it before I got there it was like the smell of a rubbish bin that had been left in the sun for a week. I went inside the house for about 30 seconds and then I had to leave to throw up.'
'There was a rabbit cage inside the house, and different droppings everywhere. They had dogs inside and there was hair over everything.'
It took five skip bins to clean up the property.
'We tried to cut the grass outside with a slasher but it kept getting caught so we had to bring in a back hoe. The whole yard is dirt now.'
It took the cleaners two days to get rid of the putrid mess left behind.
'I would have done it myself if I didn't have so many kids to look after. But it would have taken me weeks and I would have had to keep stopping to throw up – I don't know how they did it.'
The family have not heard from their past tenants – but left a message with the real-estate agents – which had been employed to evict them – apologising for the mess.
'Sorry about the state of house never got around to cleaning it,' the message read.
The Iliou family were forced to remove a toilet as well as the oven and stove because it was so filthy.
The stove had maggots on it and the toilet was deemed too dirty and blocked to deal with.
The family have already spent $5,000 on cleaning up the mess and were owed more than $10,000 in rent.
(Daily Mail - Sept 16, 2016)
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