Kristy's story

I had been renting a property for almost 12 months. I had made a complaint about a water tank leaking and nothing was done about it. Being a single mum of 3 I couldn't afford buying water every 9-14 days, so I took the matter further to the Tribunal.

Next thing I knew I had been given an eviction notice with no reason given (a ‘no grounds’ eviction). It was drama after drama then.

Soon after a friend called me to let me know they had advertised to sell the property – they hadn’t even given me notice that the house was on the market. I soon saw the listings for it on the internet and in the papers. The Real Estate Agent had obviously turned up to the while I wasn’t there. Without my knowledge they must have come through and taken photos because my belongings were all on display in the photos used in the listing for sale. After that they also came out a few more times unannounced to the property, breaching my right to privacy.

Then despite never having followed the proper process for gaining access to the property they tried to give me another eviction notice claiming I was refusing to allow access. By the time they issued the second eviction notice I’d already found somewhere else to live so I didn’t fight it, I just left.

What was the impact for me?

My children all loved it out there. They had lots of friends on the school bus they had to say goodbye to. I was forced to sell a lot of my expensive belongings that meant a lot to me in order to come up with bond for a new house and money to actually move.

We are all extremely sad that we have had to move all because I stood up for myself as a tenant. It's not right that people can be so nasty like this.