Bizarre reason mum with one-year-old “failed” rental inspection
A frustrated NSW mother has slammed her real estate agent after she “failed” her home rental inspection.
Samantha Smith said the agent was inspecting her Newcastle property at the time.
“I failed because I need to tidy up, I need to tidy up the toys,” she said in a TikTok, showing viewers her son’s toys which were stored on shelves and the floor.
“Sorry, I need to tidy up the toys? I’ve got a one-year-old.
“Are they allowed to say that?”
The agent said the mattress in the living room made it difficult to access other parts of the house.
Smith walked around the mattress into another room in an attempt to show that it wasn’t a cause for concern.
“My partner sleeps there because, you know, I have a one-year-old, and he gets up at 4:30 (in the morning) and I don’t want him to wake us up,” she explained.
The mum also mentioned that a cleaner comes every week to clean the entire house and said that “everything” is cleaned frequently.
Aside from the toys and mattress, Smith revealed the agent also told her to tidy up the linen press cupboard and clean the ceiling fans.
“This is the only cupboard where I can store our linen press stuff and our food because the whole house has no other cupboards,” she said.
“Is that a joke? Like how is what’s in my cupboard any of her business?”
She then shared the agent told her to wash the outside of her house.
“That’s mould, mate, that’s black mould, I’m not washing that, like that’s not my business,” Smith said, panning the camera to the outside walls and overall exterior of her property.
“Why is she judging me (for) the way I live?
“What peeves me is that there is so much that needs to be repaired.”
She then walked around the property and pointed out damages showing an unstable wooden corner of the room, lifting floorboards on the outside deck, a rotten handrailing and a damaged gate that wouldn’t close.
The frustrated mother said she had been living on the property for seven years and paid $550 for rent per week.
She also mentioned the lack of storage in her home, adding that the contract prevented her family from storing items in the garage, so they had to rent out a storage unit for $150 per week.
“I’m pretty pissed off, like the fact that, you know, there’s stuff that needs to be fixed that is severe, like we could fall through the deck, the corner could fall off and split our head open, like our blinds are actually yellow on the other side so they’re all brittle, she wants me to fix them. Like I didn’t do the damage, the sun did,” Smith explained.
Smith’s video went viral on TikTok, attracting more than 43,000 views and hundreds of comments.
Many people sympathised with the mother, expressing their own shock at the agent’s requests, saying inspections should be focused on inspecting damage to the property alone.
“Rental inspections used to check for any damage, structural damage and to ensure the house is being kept in a hygienic manner. These days they expect the house to be presented better than when you moved in. Toys, belongings in cupboards etc is not to be penalised,” one person explained.
“They can only look at the general wear and tear of the house. They cannot tell you to tidy your house or to pick up toys. Take them to tribunal,” another added.
“A house inspection should be more worried about damage to the house than a mess of kids’ toys. A man was told to make his bed in an inspection,” a third said.
Other TikTok users shared their own similar experiences.
“My property manager told me I had too many ‘knick knacks’ on my shelves,” one said.
“Don’t worry I got told that I can’t have a table in my garage because it’s only for cars and that my baby toys needed to be hidden away,” another commented.
“37 weeks pregnant, husband doing overtime before baby comes and they wanted me to have the house in the same condition they rented it to us,” another user shared.
Image credit: TikTok