![South Morang property investor - aftermath of tenants 2026 - for herald sun real estate. photo: Supplied.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
First-time property investor Dan Yeats spent $10,000 cleaning up the mess left behind by his former tenants. Picture: Supplied.
A Melbourne landlord whose ex-tenants’ actions have left him more than $65,000 out of pocket is calling for Victoria’s rental laws to be overhauled.
First-time property investor Dan Yeats’ former tenants also left his South Morang townhouse in such an “unsanitary, unsafe and inhabitable” condition, including bags of rubbish with maggots underneath and cat faeces smeared on the walls, that insurance assessors refused to go inside.
Mr Yeats and his wife went through 13 hearings at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in an effort to give their tenants notice once they stopped paying rent.
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As well, Mr Yeats was forced to take a FIFO worker job to help cover costs associated with the property including legal fees.
Mr Yeats said he and his wife bought the townhouse with the idea that it would be a good investment for their future, and engaged a property manager who had been recommended to them to screen potential tenants.
In 2024, they accepted a family as tenants, who later were found to have provided some fraudulent references.
At the time, Mr Yeats never imagined the family would stop paying rent from May 2025.
They now owe him and his wife almost $28,000 in unpaid rent, since being removed in January 2026.
The tenants left dirty plates and food piled on the kitchen bench. Picture: Supplied.
How the South Morang property looked prior to the tenants moving in: Picture: Supplied.
Dan Yeats and his wife went through 13 VCAT hearings in an attempt to get their tenants out.
Once the tenants departed, the home was in such a terrible state that it cost $10,000 to remove their abandoned possessions.
On top of that, it will be an additional $30,000 to $40,000 to replace damaged carpets and floorboards, plus painting and wall repairs.
After the tenants vacated, a real estate agency’s assessment of the townhouse found drug paraphernalia, maggots under rubbish bags and cat faeces throughout the home.
Eight cats, including six kittens, were also abandoned by the tenants.
The agency report stated that the residence was in need of deep cleaning and sanitising due to its “unsanitary, unsafe and inhabitable” condition.
![South Morang property investor - aftermath of tenants 2026 - for herald sun real estate. photo: Supplied.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 768 1024"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Several cats, including these kittens, were left behind by the tenants. Police who attended the property called a council ranger, who removed all the cats. Picture: Supplied.
There were maggots underneath rubbish bags at the home. Picture: Supplied.
To help reduce the financial impact of dealing with the mess, Mr Yeats and his brother, a professional cleaner, spent four days clearing out the home when the tenants were gone.
“They completely trashed the floors, there was cat p*ss and cat sh*t everywhere, they’ve been throwing water down on the floorboards which wrecked the floorboards,” Mr Yeats said.
“We couldn’t understand how anyone could live like that.”
Insurance assessors even refused to enter the home for safety reasons, due to odour and the amount of items left inside.
Agents who inspected the property, following the renters leaving, stated in their report that they “but had to get out of the property as quickly as possible, for health reasons”. Picture: Supplied.
Mr Yeats said when he sought permission from VCAT to give the tenants notice to vacate, the individual family members would then apply for a review – which would sometimes be dismissed when the tenant would not show up, dragging out to a total 13 hearings.
He said that the rental reforms put through by former Premier Daniel Andrews in 2021 “had exploded” giving non-paying renters the ability to effectively continuously appeal notices to vacate a property.
“That’s the way the legislation’s written it could go on forever, and that’s pretty much what happened with us,” Mr Yeats said.
He and his wife forked out $12,000 in legal fees for all the VCAT hearings.
And they’re still battling their insurance company which is “dragging their feet” over a claim on the investment property.
Mr Yeats said the experience of renting out the property, and going through the VCAT process, had been “devastating” both emotionally and financially. Picture: Supplied.
Mr Yeats has started two petitions, including one which Victoria’s Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs Tim McCurdy has sponsored in parliament, in the hopes that no other landlord will go through a similar experience.
He’s appealing for the state government to give landlords immediate possession rights of a home once a fixed-term lease expires and the tenant is in rental arrears.
He would also like to see expedited possession when rental arrears exceed one month’s rent, limits on repeated co-tenant reviews at VCAT, and mandatory independent verification of rental tenant’s references – and penalties if these are found to be fraudulent.
The petition can only be signed by Victorian residents at Parliament of Victoria, while the second petition is open to all Australians at change.org.
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