Mum of two sleeping in car

Story on news.com.au this morning about a single Mum of two and her kids sleeping in a car in SE Melbourne. (Cold!)

I suspect the key to understanding this story is in the last line of the article: 'The Dandenong family's dire situation came about after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled her previous rental home of 16 months was unsafe to live in.'

I'm willing to be it wasn't unsafe because the landlord hadn't kept up the maintenance, or else the Tribunal would have forced the landlord to fix it, pronto! So my guess is that she absolutely trashed the place, and that's why she can't find another place. Her friends and family won't take her in because they don't want their homes trashed, too. :eek:

Where's the sob story about the poor landlord, who's probably been left with a multi-$10K clean-up bill? :mad:

What do you think? Am I reading it right, or am I just a cold-hearted b***h, cynical as a result of experience in the landlord-tenant arena? :D
 
Yes, it's a bit sus that she can't find friends or rellies to put her up for a while. On the other hand, if it's for real that she has a part time job as a dr's receptionist, then she has to have some kind of credibility. Hard to tell with these stories.
 
I didn't read anything like that into the story at all. It never crossed my mind.

Perhaps I was thinking of a tenant we rented to when a house she rented had windows that did not close (she had two young teen daughters and recently separated so needed to know her girls could be safe) and other basic issues that her PM refused to acknowledge or do anything about.

What I felt watching the show was that if she was in Brisbane I would have asked her to live with us until she found a rental :).

Perhaps I am just a softie. She seemed a decent sort and I felt sorry for her little children. She did say that she had kept her homelessness quiet due to embarrassment. Who knows??
 
I just caught her interview with Steve Price on MTR. According to her, she got kicked out becuase the house needed restumping (?). Although, she did use language like "a registered builder deemed it to be unsafe".
Sounds like PITA tenant speak to me.
But who knows the reasons.
 
Just heard the interview with her on the Matt and Jo show on Fox FM.

Very sad to hear this kind of thing happens.

Im sure with the media exposure, she will be in a 3 bedroom house before the end of the month.

Cheers

Mick
 
I just caught her interview with Steve Price on MTR. According to her, she got kicked out becuase the house needed restumping (?). Although, she did use language like "a registered builder deemed it to be unsafe".
Sounds like PITA tenant speak to me.
But who knows the reasons.
Hmmm... perhaps I am just a cynical b***h! ;)

If that's the only reason they moved out, and I'm open to the fact that it might be, then I find it extremely difficult to believe that there aren't friends or family who'd at least let them park in the garage and use their kitchen and bathroom facilities.

Looking forward to more information. :)
 
I only heard the tail end of it on the radio, will have more time to read it later.

Mother spoke on radio of her woes working as a medical receptionist and the difficulty of being properly presented for the role having to live out of the car; going to pool to shower and so on.

I'm not sure if she was a less than gleaming tenant. She sounded fairly genuine, however I don't have the whole story by any means.

In the public state housing arena (NSW) however the bureaucracy and paper trail and what not, leave much to be desired when a vacancy took them over three months to place a tenant whilst they are in dire housing shortages.
 
In the story she talks about parking in rail station parking lots and how she gets no sleep. Why doesn't she park in a family members or friends front yard or even sleep on the floor in said related persons house.

I tend to smell a rat. She left a house because she wanted to or because of a drama she created. She didn't go through the tribunal who would not have evicted with kids - again makes me think she left and more to the point she left without first finding alternate accommodation.

Obviously the quote

"Although, she did use language like "a registered builder deemed it to be unsafe".
Sounds like PITA tenant speak to me." came from some interview which again leads me to think that it was dramas which she instigated and eventually saw her out on the street.

I think she's playing it up for the world to see and no doubt she will have accom by the end of today thanks to a genuine do gooder who can't see beyond the manipulation.

Cheers
 
It sounds to me like there's more to this story too.

If she has a good tenant history she would have very easily secured accommodation after applying for 60 homes :confused:.

I don't know Dandenong (although I've been there) or it's rental situation, so perhaps someone here can tell us if dozens are turning up at home opens for rentals or not.
 
More info required

Read the story and am now also adopting the sceptic's route. :cool:

Here's a quick search for houses in Dandy and surrounds for even under 300 bucks a week:

http://www.domain.com.au/Search/ren...rooms=>1&from=250&to=300&searchterm=Dandenong

No doubt units/flats even cheaper. No mention of glowing credit references to support her applications. In the absence of such a landlord may not take the risk.

Will be interesting if it airs on Current Affair or Today Tonight as the "hard done by story" and then the opposing network airs the .....yeah, but......."tenant from hell story" the next night. :eek:

Something's not quite right and surely much info is missing from the whole situation. Pity for the kids however.

Also her car looks bigger than a Barina.......not trivialising the situation however that would be a tight squeeze.
 
i saw it on the today show this morning.... she has a commodore.
Also the way she was presenting herself and her case definitely sounds like she is a tennant from hell - either not paying rent, trashed the house, or a bit of both.

60 applications in 6 weeks DEFINITELY sounds like she either has a MASSIVE mark against her name on TICA, and/or extremely poor credit rating, and/or extremely poor past landlord references.

There simply HAS to be more to this story than meets the eye
 
Sounds to me like one of those smart *** tenants who knows the tenancy act word for word. Deems house unsafe to live in so would rather be on TV to probably end up with charity/free accomodation.
 
....either way it flops, not someone I'd ever contemplate doing hard-nosed business with that could underpin a mortgage undertaking with a hard-nosed Bank.

IMO, she's looking for a very generous and wealthy Landlord to support her and her children.
 
Well, my view is that even if she did stuff up somewhere, so what who hasn't !
She's a mum , she's standing by her kids no matter what , still holding down a job and going through that so who gives a damn , that says a hell of a lot about her good side and they all need a home .

Anyway thankfully I just saw it on the morning news and they've got themselves somewhere to live .

Cheers
 
Story on news.com.au this morning about a single Mum of two and her kids sleeping in a car in SE Melbourne. (Cold!)

I suspect the key to understanding this story is in the last line of the article: 'The Dandenong family's dire situation came about after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled her previous rental home of 16 months was unsafe to live in.'

I'm willing to be it wasn't unsafe because the landlord hadn't kept up the maintenance, or else the Tribunal would have forced the landlord to fix it, pronto! So my guess is that she absolutely trashed the place, and that's why she can't find another place. Her friends and family won't take her in because they don't want their homes trashed, too. :eek:

Where's the sob story about the poor landlord, who's probably been left with a multi-$10K clean-up bill? :mad:

What do you think? Am I reading it right, or am I just a cold-hearted b***h, cynical as a result of experience in the landlord-tenant arena? :D

Talk about jumping to conclusions!
I have a younger sister, who despite alot of faults is an EXCELLENT tenant. She is also a single mum, and a young one at that. Because of this, she is very limited in what she can afford and more often then not rejected as a tenant applicant. She has been homeless (with her son) because of this, she was lucky that she DID have a floor her and her son could crash on. The only ways she ended up being able to get a place to live in was that my mother, rented out a house in her name. The houses my sister rented in the past in her own name have been complete hovels (I wouldn't live in any of them) because that is all she could get. Now she faces the possiblity of being homeless yet again as the rent is increasing $30 f/n and she will be unable to afford it, she is in the process of house hunting at the moment.
 
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