Inside couple’s desperate battle to evict nightmare tenants who have destroyed their home

A couple are locked in a desperate battle to evict a group of nightmare tenants who have left their home resembling a bomb site – and they can’t get rid of them. 

Leanne and Adrian Tuffley, who own the four-bedroom house in Oamaru on New Zealand’s South Island, planned to knock down the property and build townhouses – so gave its occupants a 90-day notice to leave by January 15.  

But the tenants had other ideas.

Not only did they refuse to leave the home, but they stopped paying rent.  

There are three dogs and 11 people living in the Tuffleys’ home, including seven children, with the group hoarding an incredible amount of junk and garbage throughout the property.

The clutter includes cars, bicycles, machinery, piping and other miscellaneous items, and stretches throughout the home and outside onto the street and footpath.

Ms Tuffley told Stuff the unwelcome tenants had reduced their property to less than its land value.

‘What right do these people have to our property?’ she said.

The Tuffleys were granted possession of their house on January 20 by the Tenancy Tribunal, which also ordered the tenants to pay $2,483 and their bond to the owners.

Police helped to evict the tenants on February 10, but a week later they applied for a rehearing.

Remarkably, the tenants were allowed to return to the property on February 20.

The Tuffleys said the Ministry of Justice told them there is nothing they can do until the rehearing on April 20. 

A New Zealand couple have opened up on their desperate battle to remove a group of hoarding tenants from their home (pictured)

They were advised to get a lawyer and apply for another eviction notice. 

‘We can’t afford a lawyer at the drop of a hat,’ Mr Tuffley said. 

Mr Tuffley believes that once tenants have been evicted and received a trespass notice, they should be unable to regain possession of a property.

‘I then rang the bailiff who said “no that’s not correct”, if they’ve already been evicted you don’t have to apply for another one so I’m going to the police,’ he said. 

The couple said their frustrating process highlights that residential landlords don’t have the means to remove unwanted tenants, even with their legal eviction notice and possession grant from the tribunal.

The Tuffleys have been forced to delay their development plans.

There are 11 people living rent-free in the Tuffley’s home, including seven children and three dogs

Inside Australia’s worst hoarder houses: Bathtubs full of pet poo, rooms stacked to the ceiling with rubbish, a MUMMIFIED dog, and a dead body rolled up in carpet 

Bathtubs full of cat litter and a mummified dog are among the grim discoveries made inside hoarder homes as they hit the market for the first time in decades.   

Hoarding specific cleaning companies have boomed in recent years to deal with the increasing number of deceased estates in dire need of clear-outs prior to sale. 

An estimated 8,000 to 18,000 Sydney homes are owned by compulsive hoarders, according to realestate.com.au.

Among the most unusual finds in properties across Sydney include bathtubs full of animal faeces, cockroach infestations and a mummified pet dog

One of the companies leading the charge is ‘Hoarder Clean-up’ fronted by Chris Burgess and his sons. 

They’ve seen some of the worst homes in Sydney, including a home in Greenwich where a dead body was found in 2018.

The body was discovered in a rolled up carpet in the home and when the home went for auction the property was flooded by curious onlookers keen to find out more.

The deceased estate resold for $2.07million despite the macabre discovery.

An estimated 8,000 to 18,000 Sydney homes are owned by compulsive hoarders, according to realestate.com.au

Bathtubs full of pet poo are a common find in Sydney’s hoarder homes

Mr Burgess told realestate.com.au they also found a mummified dog inside the drawer of a home in North Sydney and an alarming number of homes with bathtubs full of pet poo.

He said they also found another corpse – but it was likely being used for academic purposes. 

‘We found a skeleton, which they got from way back in the days when medical students could buy them from places like India,’ he said. 

Meanwhile Hoarder Cleaning Team director Sharon Nohra said when things get really bad, it isn’t just animal poo they’re cleaning up.

‘When there is so much rubbish you can’t move, the (residents) can’t get to the bathrooms anymore and they use bags,’ she said.  

One property in Parramatta was sold on Saturday for over $1.1million, despite a towering mass of wooden crates and boxes outside the home. 

Another in Darlington which featured stacks of newspapers as tall as the ceiling will go up for sale on Tuesday after a lengthy clean-up of the deceased estate.

Old newspapers stack up in a Sydney home where the owner has been accumulating them over the years