2 days ago
Ben and Dino thought they had found the perfect rental... then they were given 24 hours to leave as a glaring issue exposes the dire reality for millions
Two housemates were evicted from their rental at just a day's notice after part of the ceiling became detached from the walls and the house began to sink.
Ben Pierpoint and Dino Dimitriadis were initially happy when they moved into their refurbished home in Marrickville, in Sydney 's Inner West, two years ago.
A year later, they started to see small cracks in the walls that they thought were just normal wear and tear.
But on July 22 this year, Mr Pierpoint's wall tore away from the ceiling and the house sank by six centimetres.
He said there was a 'significant gap' where the wall disconnected from the ceiling.
They quickly told their landlord, and an engineer found the house was no longer safe to live in, and they had 24 hours to pack their belongings and leave.
The pair wondered if construction work next door, where a 10metre deep hole was dug for a basement car park, had anything to do with their home's damage.
They questioned whether the excavation caused a seepage failure, meaning the ground on their side of the building had sunk, causing their walls to separate from the ceilings.
They lodged compensation claims with the owner's insurance company, but they were refused because the insurance company argued the damage was just normal wear and tear.
Mr Pierpoint said it was a 'traumatic' ordeal which forced them to spend thousands of dollars on removalists, storage units and temporary accommodation, and they were also forced to take time off work.
NSW Fair Trading, the Inner West Council and the Building Commission all told them that no one had any legal responsibility to compensate them financially.
NSW Fair Trading said the Residential Tenancies Act did not cover relationships with third parties.
Mr Pierpoint and Mr Dimitriadis said their situation highlighted a gap in tenancy laws.
The law says landlords have a legal duty to provide a safe home, but if it becomes uninhabitable and unsafe to live in, they can cease the lease right away.
Mr Pierpoint and Mr Dimitriadis want to be compensated, but a legal fight against their landlord, or a third party, would cost them too much.
Tenants' Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross told the Sydney Morning Herald that the costs of legal action outstripped the amount people wanted to be compensated.
'Just a filing fee alone could start at $500, and that's before you hire a solicitor – there might be many people who wouldn't pursue it because of the high costs and risk of not being successful,' he said.
Mr Pierpoint and Mr Dimitriadis said things would only 'get worse and worse, unless something changes'.
They are calling on the government to amend tenancy laws to provide renters with a safety net if they are evicted for reasons beyond their control.
'Or, forcing the landlord's insurance to cover those costs – but we all know insurance companies will do anything to not have to pay anything,' Pierpoint told the Sydney Morning Herald.
'If we didn't have the financial means to move that quickly, our stuff would just be on the street. If we didn't have community and friends around us, we would actually be homeless.'
Mr Pierpoint and Mr Dimitriadis who have run into trouble with the quality of their rental.
Ksenia Pavlovskaya, 43, previously claimed she was living with health problems because of the mould at her unit in North Curl Curl, on Sydney 's leafy Northern Beaches.
Daily Mail Australia contacted Mr Pierpoint and Mr Patterson Ross for further comment.
