A couple are devastated after discovering their home was left looking like a rubbish tip by a former friend they were trying to help out.
Andrew Robson and his partner Jay Holtz invited Emily, a struggling single mum with three kids, to move in to their Point Cook home in Melbourne‘s west, after they decided to move interstate in 2019.
But three years later the couple returned to discover the home was trashed, with piles of garbage, bugs and faeces throughout and the mum nowhere to be seen.
The couple said it was ‘heartbreaking’ to see the place they had called a home for 12 years reduced to a ‘horror show’.
‘What we found of the beautiful home we remembered is nothing more than an absolute horror show,’ Mr Robson said on his GoFundMe page.
‘Every wall drawn on, broken furniture throughout, rubbish and bodily fluids everywhere. Now Emily has taken to the hills and left us with this destroyed memory and heart break.’
Footage of the ruined house went viral last week on Mr Robson’s social media, with the couple exposing the extent of the damage.
It showed litter and debris sprawled across the hallways and in each room, with broken mattresses and bed frames amid the shambles.
Pizza boxes and McDonald’s wrappers were seen on bedroom floors and writing scrawled across the walls, with children’s clothes and toys strewn about.
In some rooms the floor was not visible, with the stench of faeces throughout making Mr Robson sick.
It was ‘heartbreaking’ for Andrew Robson and his partner Jay Holtz to see what had been their home for 12 years reduced to a ‘horror show’ (pictured, the trashed home)
‘A mother was raising her three kids in that absolute mess and disgust,’ he said.
Mr Holtz and his family had rented the property for 10 years, before he and Mr Robson moved in under an informal lease agreement for another two years.
But they then wanted to move to Queensland for a change and offered to sublet the place to Emily while they were away.
The pair said they had befriended her in 2018 and allowed her to move in to the house – without a bond – after she hit hard times looking for a rental.
‘The owner of the property asked us to find someone to take over and what perfect timing! Emily was struggling to find a place for her and her kids so we offered her to move in and take over,’ Mr Robson said.
But signs things were not right came when she asked repeatedly for financial help, after the couple took off to Queensland.
Mr Robson said she made frequent requests for them to cover her rent and to make school payments for her kids.
Rubbish was seen on bedroom floors and writing scrawled across the walls and in some rooms the floor was not visible (pictured, a living room in the home)
‘A mother was raising her three kids in that absolute mess and disgust,’ Mr Robson said
Footage of the ruined house went viral last week on Mr Robson’s social media, with the couple exposing the extent of the damage (pictured)
‘We tried our best to keep her going as best we could,’ Mr Robson said.
They even paid for cleaners to go in before house inspections during her tenure, before she started to make excuses to avoid the visits altogether.
‘She had Covid, the kids had Covid, multiple times, lice, her father passed away, which we felt sorry for, so we gave her a break during that period,’ the couple said.
It all came to a head when the owner decided to oust the tenant from the premises, giving her three months to vacate.
But Emily was still in the property by October and had stopped paying rent, claiming she feared for herself and her children.
Social media posts showed litter and debris sprawled across the hallways and in each room (pictured)
A real estate took over the problem last month and received an anonymous call she had vacated the property.
The couple then went to the home and saw it had become a huge tip. As they had sub-let the residence, the sickening mess was their responsibility.
The mum is understood to be staying with family in the Blue Mountains but the pair have given up finding her and have started the huge clean up, 7News reported.
The pair had finished chucking out all the carpet on Wednesday and were about to start painting one of the rooms.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for the massive job, which is expected to cost up to $10,000.