Breathe, Lady!

What happened to me???

Back in November 2016 I moved away from Park View Retirement Village in Bethania. The managers mistreated me; I attempted suicide; I was illegally locked out when I got back from hospital; I spent a week homeless, sharing accommodation with my friends. Park View didn’t care. I spoke a little about all this in previous post on 1 January 2017, 21 March and 16 May, and wrote fully about it on 9 April.

I found a different unit, a garage turned into a 2 bedroomed unit. The small yard, fully securely fenced, was great for me and my 15-year-old BFF dog, Jordie. There were some problems throughout the unit, but not too much for me. I never wrote about any of these in my blog posts, so here… read on.

I got the unit from Paul Flynn Properties, and the owner was named on the lease. I moved in from 1 December 2016. At that time this unit wasn’t clean, so I cleaned it. I found a few problems – no covers over the front or back door so rain could come in (which did in the kitchen until I got that fixed); I didn’t really have a driveway, nor a carport; there was only one letterbox; the cupboard in the laundry wasn’t filled in and held a smaller cupboard which opened the opposite way; the curtains were too long on these doors (short ceiling?); the clothesline was sinking into the lawn and the concrete around it was breaking up due to the roots from the big tree; there were no hoses on my side of this property; there wasn’t a garden shed where I could have put my tools or anything else; movements upstairs had a very loud echo in my unit; the kitchen cupboards weren’t sealed – mice in there. And more stuff, but it didn’t seem too bad to me. Oh, I wrote to Paul Flynns a couple of times: most not fixed.

In April this year Harcourts took over the lease: same owner. I wrote to the property manager about much of what I had written to Paul Flynns, and had a builder in who fixed the laundry cupboard and looked at other stuff but didn’t do much else. I included the driveway which I didn’t have, up to the carpark I did have. She suggested I could contact Logan City Council. By this time I wasn’t thinking of a real driveway, just some yellow paint I could put on the roadside so people wouldn’t park in front of me. I wrote to LCC. I got a phone call shortly after I wrote to them, saying I couldn’t paint on the road. Oh well: I thought that was the end of it.

On Tuesday this week I got a phone call from a chap from LCC who said that he was not aware if my unit was legal. Say what?? It seems that the work inside this unit was not ever done through LCC. Illegal. How on earth am I getting into illegal stuff?? This was not my problem. 

Yesterday this chap and a workmate came to the unit to check it out. I also had the property manager from Harcourts at my place.  The unit certainly was illegal. The ceiling was too low – which was all they needed to tell me, but they’d write a report to the owner. He would have 20 days to answer. If he didn’t plan on fixing this ($100,000, they suggested, to lift it to legal height, fix the fire separation between the levels, ensure that everything else was legal) I couldn’t live here any more. 30 days, they said. The LCC chap gave the property manager a whole lot of plans for this property which she could give to her own manager and/or talk over those with the owner.

I felt sick. I had been in Bethania – with my dog on my lease for 4.5 months - before they mistreated me and Jordie. I’d moved to Eagleby 9 months ago – and it was a very good private area – before I found out yesterday that I’d been signed into an illegal property. 

What ever more??? 

Around 4.30pm I went to look at a unit advertised through Harcourts. It looks okay, but it’s not the best I’ve seen. I’ve got more time now. I looked through websites and found 6 units which I could go and look at – compare them against each other. Where do I want to live? Definitely closer to town, but I need the Mylestone CPL carer who is based in Beenleigh.  And I must be able to take my dog.

I contacted the Department Housing group in Woodridge where I’d been back in November 2016. They’d helped a lot back then, and organised a bond – which I frustratingly don’t think even relates to where I am now! I spoke to the Call Centre who gave me some info and suggested I get into Woodridge for the application for the Department of Housing Community Housing.

I rang RTA and asked what steps I should take. They said that I could go into QCAT and make an application for moving costs covered by the owner of this property. I had memories of the other organisations I had used and spoken to in November last year, predominantly YFS and QSTARs. This afternoon, on the way home from my choir rehearsal, I stopped at Woodridge and got the application forms and an application for yet another bond loan. 

What am I doing??? 

I am so much over this! This has happened since I had my brain surgery and stroke. I can't react the way I would have before that. Park View mistreated me, and I sure hope I will (finally) win the QCAT case next Tuesday, without it being postponed again. The owner of this present unit has now mistreated me, and my costs could be a lot higher as I try and get into a decent property which will support me and Jordie – who has to live with me until she dies! Those costs aren’t mine! The behaviour of property owners has gone down the drain, and, for my thinking, the cheaper properties aren’t the “best” for the “less” rent. I only found 6 properties for $250 or less – all of which are more expensive than I have been paying. Owners should think of people on a Centrelink benefit. They should think of how their properties are treated, and look after them.

And, most of all, they MUST think whether their properties are or are not legal. Because “legal” is essential.