PART 38: KATIE
May 2021, Melbourne
The place I'm living in is starting to fall apart. And its sucks. I’ve been living here for about four years. It's been it's one of those place that has been a share house for like, probably like six, seven years. Just tenants going in and out. I moved in after a breakup and it was the perfect spot. It has a big backyard for my dog and is near a few tramlines. The shops are within walking distance and there’s like beautiful walking areas. It’s fantastic.
But the house sucks. I don't know what's going on with the real estate agent. My friend moved interstate to come and live with me and it's been months and they still haven't gotten approved. I've even asked. When I told them that I was going to be late with rent because my dog lost his eye and his surgery was $2500, they said “Yeah, cool. No worries pay late”. Then like a week later, they're like, “Oh, does the dog live at the property?” And I was like, What do you mean? Does the dog live at the property? I've been living here for four years. He was on the original application. He's been here at inspections. What the hell are you that disconnected from reality? What the fuck.
So that's going on and a bathtub won't drain and it’s a bath-shower combo. Just having a shower and it starts filling up with your own filth. It's disgusting. Told them like a month ago because they're already sending someone out for other plumbing stuff that I didn't even know about. And they said “yeah, cool.” I even contacted the plumbers and said, “Hey, this is going on. I've let the real estate agent know hopefully they can chuck it on your work order”. And they're just like, “Yeah, sure. No worries. We'll take a look at it”. Blah, blah, blah. They didn't. They didn't. There's three girls here with very like, long and thick hair. It's a clogged to shit drain.
Then, like before it even became a house, they ripped out the insulation under the house for god knows what reason. It looks like there used to be some sort of heating system in the house to heat everything up, but no, they pulled that out too. So it's freezing cold every winter. I'm getting too old. I'm 26 now. I can't live like this. It sucks. Like rent was cheap, but after COVID it's so much cheaper. There's literally a house down the road that's $100 cheaper per week that has a dishwasher. We don't even have a dishwasher. I don't know what's going on.
Then there's just so many other issues like the extraction fans have something, I think it's negative pressure. Which is dangerous as hell. So if we have all three fans on in the house it could cause negative pressure and could get gas leaks in the house. That happened like over a year ago, and they're just like, “Okay, cool. Well, we'll come back in a week and fix it. But for now, just don't use all three fans. At the same time”. There's three people living here, it's cold, we're going to have the fire on, someone's going to be cooking something and someone's gonna have a shower at the same time. That's not unreasonable. It's just exhausting.
Then the front porch light has been out and doesn't work. We've replaced the globe and it's just absolutely cooked. Back fence is falling down. Which is why there's a grate on it, which is where my dog lost his bloody eye. And I can't even get an email back about my housemate who's already been living here for two months, paid two months rent and bond and transfer fees. Is she allowed to live here? We don't know. She has been living here. I'm exhausted. And I have done real estate work. I did reception and property management. These things aren't hard to fix. You literally just need to send out a work order. These are all urgent health and safety stuff. Don't even get me started in the body mice that are trying to get into the house. Not even close to the city. It shouldn't be this bad. It's ridiculous.
Sometimes I wish I just lived in a high rise in the city. But I just couldn't do that. I don't know how people do it. I don't know how people move either.