A student has narrowly avoided moving into a ‘haunted’ property in Sydney after she applied to rent a townhouse where a woman lay dead for eight years before being found.
The woman explained on TikTok she was looking for a place to rent near the CBD and was impressed by the newly renovated property available for $900 a week.
‘Why are the only houses that I can get haunted?’ she captioned the clip.
TikTok user emdeebs uploaded a video recounting the tale of her rental search (pictured) but said after she found out about the townhouse’s past she will be withdrawing her application
She explained she applied for the house in Surry Hills, in the city’s inner south, because it had three bedrooms and was ‘super renovated’.
‘All the bedrooms were a good size. Living and kitchens areas were good and I was like “sweet”,’ she said.
But then she searched the address online and accidentally clicked on the ‘news tab’.
‘I found out that a woman died in the house and was dead for eight years before they found her,’ she said.
‘Soo I think I’m going to remove my application.’
The house at 139 Kippax Street is the former residence of Natalie Wood who became known as ‘the woman Sydney forgot’.
The townhouse was derelict (pictured) when the skeleton of Natalie Wood was found in one of the bedrooms by police in 2011 after she died in 2003
Residents of the street said the ‘neatly dressed’ elderly woman had a reputation for being reclusive, although she would often sit on the porch and wave to neighbours when she lived in the house in the 1990s.
In December 2003, Ms Wood, who was now in her late 70s, stopped appearing on the porch. The grass and shrubs in her yard became overgrown and the townhouse fell into disrepair.
Yet nobody stopped to check if she was OK.
It wasn’t until eight years later in July 2011 that police found her remains – nothing more than a skeleton – by her bed.
The house had become derelict with paint peeling, mould covering the walls, cans of coffee and condensed milk found long past their use by dates, and part of the ceiling caving in.
How she had not been missed by her neighbours, relatives, The City of Sydney who billed her rates, or Centrelink who paid her pension was the subject of a coronial inquiry.
The townhouse in newly renovated with the TikTok user saying she was impressed to find such a good property to rent in inner Sydney (pictured)
Authorities said her cause of death might never be determined because her body had been left for so long.
Distant relatives surfaced after she was found and made claims on her estate – nearly $80,000 in cash and the townhouse worth about $800,000.
Residents on the street left flowers outside the woman’s house.
‘I always thought the house was derelict,’ one neighbour said.
‘It’s terribly sad she was there so long, I was not surprised, though. People lead such busy lives,’ another said.
Ms Wood was born in 1924 and lived at 139 Kippax Street as a child.
She moved away briefly at the age of 20 to Melbourne after she got married, but the union only lasted five years and she returned to the property.
Some relatives wanted her to move to a nursing home in her later years, but she was adamant that she would stay in the townhouse.
The three bedroom townhouse is available to rent for $900 a week (pictured)
Her remains were laid to rest at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park.
Some viewers replied on the TikTok clip saying they had also rented the house.
‘I just moved out of this house, Natalie was great company,’ a viewer said.
‘I moved in and five days later my housemates told me. We didn’t stay too long,’ another admitted.
‘I lived here two years ago and got her room. Never heard from her so it’s safe,’ another said.
‘Real estate agent here, we’re required by law to tell you something like this,’ a fourth added.
Some viewers on the video said they had also rented the place (pictured) and had not encountered any strange phenomenon
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