Mushrooms growing on rental home's walls
JAMAHL Jones expected his room to be a little musty after a month-long holiday - but the mushrooms growing on the walls were a complete surprise.
A suspected crack in the concrete slab of Mr Jones’ rented home at Trinity Beach has turned the property into a water feature, complete with mould, myriad fungi and a hallway canal when it rains.
Pictures: Mouldy house sprouts mushrooms
But the thought that annoys him most is the mould may have been caused by problems that were pre-existing when the lease was signed.
The pool finisher said he and his room mates notified their real estate agent about some wetness in the bathroom, suspecting a leaky roof, but as the wet season got wetter so did his home.
After months of waiting for repairs there was little choice but to break the lease and move on.
"About two weeks after first telling them, I went back in and said we would have to fill out a dispute resolution form if nothing was done and I was told we had to give them time to fix the problem," he said.
"That was when we were told that the problem wasn’t in the roof, but was because of a cracked slab, that they knew about a year beforehand."
When contacted yesterday by The Weekend Post, Cairns Premier Realty owner Pauline Newman said work had been done on the home before the tenants moved in and she believed the home to be in fine living order when the lease was signed.
She added that mould inside homes was part of life in the tropics.
"The property was quite liveable and the problem has manifested since they have moved in," she said.
"We wouldn’t have let the house out to them if it wasn’t suitable."
Ms Newman said the home’s owner lived overseas and was often hard to contact – and real estate agents are not allowed to spend landlords’ money without approval, which may explain the wait.
Residential Tenancy Authority general manager Fergus Smith said tenants could lodge a complaint after giving realtors a minimum of seven days to act on a maintenance issue.
The Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act states that "at the start of a tenancy… the premises and inclusions are in good repair; and the lessor is not in breach of a law dealing with issues about the health or safety of persons using or entering the premises."
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At home: Jamahl Jones has moved out of a Trinity Beach property where mushrooms were growing out of the walls. Picture: MIKE WATT
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