Tenants, squatters land property owner with $40k repair bill

A tough-talking real estate agent is on a one-woman crusade to protect her clients from bad tenants that she says have too much power under the current system.

It can be a long and costly process to get rid of bad tenants, with landlords in some cases forced to take them to a civil tribunal, where a tenant can appeal the eviction.

"I just find it completely bizarre that landlords who own the property, pay the council rates, pay the tax, pay the mortgages, basically are losing every right that they should have," real estate agent Hayley Marley told A Current Affair.

Ms Marley's mission has seen her cop some heated and abusive language from tenants – some instances of which she has caught on camera.

Alex Anjas is one landlord who says he's been on the wrong end of some bad tenants.

He worked seven days a week to afford his investment property, but says the state it has been left in is "heartbreaking".

He claimed his two female tenants stopped paying rent and left the property in a mess - and then some squatters moved in.

"I honestly can not believe this," Mr Anjas said.

"Not in my wildest dreams I would have seen anything like this from anyone."

Tradie Rick Da Silva estimated the repair and clean-up costs would top $40,000.

"Drugs, leftover food, syringes, you name it, it was in there," he said.

Grandmother Jackie Whitbread tenants left her with a smaller $6000 bill, but the damage caused to her property left her "devastated".

"They've scribbled all over the walls, taken nearly all the screens of all the windows, all the blinds are wrecked, the carpet's wrecked," she said.

"The cupboards are all mould, the toilet's black, the shower's black."

She said she had been paying $150 a month for landlord insurance, so she thought she'd be covered.

But CommInsure told her otherwise, saying the damage caused was classed as "malicious", which was an option Ms Whitbread did not pay for.

In a statement, Commonwealth Bank said it was working closely with Ms Whitbread to review whether any accidental damage caused to the property could be covered.

Lawyer Justin Lawrence claims landlords have it tough.

Even paying for an agent to manage the property was no guarantee it wouldn't be destroyed.

"There is no doubt that a landlord has no way of knowing during the lease as to whether the property has been properly maintained or not, unless their agent is putting a foot in the door and saying, 'I'm here to inspect it'," he said.